The Fourth Annual UTSA Strongest Man Competition took place April 24 in the athlete’s gym.  The competition was comprised of seven separate events that tested each contestant’s strength, endurance and spirit.

The competition began indoors with a 225-pound Bench Press, 550-pound Yoke Squat and the Iron Cross. The competitors were split into three     different groups and each group rotated between events.

“We split them by height to save time on adjusting the equipment,” Assistant Facilities Coordinator Luke Johnson said.

The Yoke Squat seemed to be the most challenging event of the morning.  Each contestant had to lift over 550 pounds of a weighted safety bar until their legs locked out. The average was around 30 squats, but contestants Daniel Johnson and Adrian Frausto broke 70 squats with ease.

“I think the hardest event for me was the bench press,” Johnson said.

After the first three rotations finished, the athletes took a break, and then the outside events took place. The four events for the afternoon were the Tire Flip, Truck Pull, Farmer’s Walk and Keg Relay.

The Tire Flip and Farmer’s Walk proved to be the most difficult.

“I’m one of the smaller people here so I’m not looking forward to the Truck Pull as I am the Farmer’s Walk,” David Noell said. “The Truck Pull is more of competition where size makes a difference.”

After the scores were tallied, Michael Cox, strength and conditioning coach, announced that there was a tie between fourth and fifth place in overall performance. Johnson and Noell faced off for the fourth place spot in a hanging contest. Noell managed to best Johnson and took fourth.

 Prizes included trophies to the top five overall and top two in the Pound-for-Pound category. They also awarded gift sets from Freebirds, coupons and gift cards, Schlitterbahn tickets, Six Flags Fiesta Texas tickets, Power Bar products and variety of other sponsored goods.

Mike Onyejiaka won first place in the overall category.  Onyejiaka placed no less than fourth in every event, and laid a huge gap in the final tally between first and second.

“This is my third competition. I got first place overall and first place Pound-For-Pound in my first competition,” Onyejiaka said.

Onyejiaka is also one of the walk-on players for the new UTSA football team.

Players nedd to have determination and discipline to win this,” Onyejiaka said. “I think this competition is great for athletes and getting UTSA’s name out.”