March 01, 2005
Twenty competitors at the Texas A&M football team's third annual Night of Champions weight-lifting exhibition posted their lifetime-best lifts on Tuesday in front of a raucous crowd of approximately 2,000 at G. Rollie White Coliseum.
"That's the crowd, the adrenaline, the evening," A&M head football coach Dennis Franchione said. "It's gameday. You can see the competitors and how they respond to a challenge. Sometimes I think they even surprise themselves."
Three Aggies - sophomore defensive lineman Red Bryant (Jasper, Texas), senior linebacker Archie McDaniel (Bay City, Texas) and junior offensive lineman J Pond (Abilene, Texas) - set the all-time A&M record in the hang clean with a lift of 407 pounds. All three also had near-misses at a whopping 429 pounds.
Setting position records were junior defensive lineman Bryce Reed (Dallas, Texas) in the bench press (500 pounds) and senior defensive lineman Johnny Jolly (Houston, Texas) in the squat (675 pounds), freshman tight end Amos Gbunblee (Houstin, Texas) in the hang clean (341) and junior running back Brandon Leone (Spring, Texas) in the hang clean (363).
The Aggies' offseason strength and conditioning "Iron Man" awards were announced at the conclusion of the exhibition. In the "skill" player category, there was a three-way tie between senior defensive back Jaxson Appel (Friendswood, Texas), sophomore running back Glenn Goodrich (McKinney, Texas) and junior running back Courtney Lewis (Houston, Texas). In the "stand-up" category, the winner was McDaniel. Taking the "sub-300" lineman award was sophomore defensive end Chris Harrington (Houston, Texas), while sophomore offensive lineman Cody Wallace (Cuero, Texas) took the "jumbo" 300-plus lineman award.
In other action, senior wide receiver DeQawn Mobley (The Bronx, N.Y.) won the vertical jump competition with a life-time best leap of 41.5 inches, while freshman running back Samson Taylor (The Woodlands, Texas) was right on his tail with a 40-inch jump.
In the 225-pound bench press repetitions competition, senior Aldo De La Garza lifted the weight 39 times, while Bryce Reed and John Kirk lifted it 29 and 31 times, respectively.
In the dunk competition, freshman quarterback Michael "Utah" Corey was named the winner after completing a windmill dunk and a 360-degree dunk before bringing down the house by jumping over a standing Peter Martin II (5-foot-11) on his way to a dunk.
The Aggies begin the 2005 Spring Drills on Friday, March 4, and the Maroon & White Spring Game is slated for Saturday, April 9.
2005 Night of Champions Results
Bench Press
Participant Prv. Best Lift
Will Morrisey 365 450
Chris Smith 380 400
Henry Smith No mark 450
Chris Harrington 425 440
Bryce Reed 490 500#
Squat
Participant Prv. Best Lift
Kevin Bryan 425 530
Jay Lucas 455 560
Stephen McGee 480 480
Jaxson Appel 500 530
Yemi Babalola 520 650
Cyril Obiozor 475 560
Chris Yoder 610 640
Johnny Jolly 670 675#
Hang Clean
Participant Prv. Best Lift
Amos Gbunblee 280.5 341
Brandon Leone 352 363#
J Pond 363 407#$
Nick Lamantia 308 341
Nathan Haile 330 352
Red Bryant 385 407#$
Archie McDaniel 385 407#$
J.D. Nicholson 390.5 396
# -- denotes position record
$ -- all-positions record
Vertical Jump
DeQawn Mobley 41.5"
Samson Taylor 40"
Renuel Greene 36.5"
Trey Brooks 36"
225 pounds Bench Press Repetitions Max
John Kirk 31
Bryce Reed 29