Bench Press

Entries are now being accepted for the 20th annual Maryland High School Bench Press Championships on May 19. Twelve weight classes ranging from 120 pounds to unlimited are being offered. Awards will be handed to the top three finishers in each weight class, and an Outstanding Lifter award will be presented to the person who presses the highest percentage of weight above his actual body weight and wins his weight class. The Bowling Brook Preparatory School in Keymar will be this year's host.

Milliner rose, Moore fell Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The biggest winner at the combine was Alabama's Dee Milliner, who ran sizzling times of 4.31 and 4.37 in the 40, cementing his position as the top cornerback in this class. Coming into the combine, there were questions about whether he has elite speed. Answered. The Lions will have a difficult time passing on him with the fifth pick. At the opposite end is Texas A&M's Damontre Moore, who came in as a top defensive end prospect but ran just one 40 - a lumbering 4.95 - then passed on a second because his hamstrings were tight.

TOWSON - Westminster's Charlie Winterstein and Manchester's Mike Bixler recently set new Maryland state records in the bench press at the Maryland Drug Free Bench Press Championships at the Towson YMCA.Winterstein, competing in the 50-59 age group, shattered the existing record by 60 pounds with a lift of 300 pounds.

Maryland cornerback Nolan Carroll, who suffered a broken leg in the first game of the season, was drafted in the fifth round (145th overall) by the Miami Dolphins. The senior captain missed the rest of the season, and many observers point to his loss as a reason for the Terps' 2-10 season and shoddy pass defense. Carroll missed the NFL Combine, but was impressive during Maryland's Pro Day in March for NFL scouts. He posted the top marks in the 40-yard dash (4.39), pro agility drill (4.21)

Howard Sturman, Iain Burgess and Cathy Solan do not fit the stereotype of a power lifter. None has colossal size; their combined ages add up to 146 years, and they all work in white-collar jobs. "One of the rarities between the three of us is we have no tattoos," said Sturman, who lives in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village. "We're a little bit older," he said. "It catches people off guard, because they say, `At your age, you shouldn't be doing this kind of stuff.' But we all have the intensity level to compete.

I ENJOY playing sports, but I'm not much of a spectator. In fact, about my only concession to watching sports on TV is the Olympics, which I've followed religiously since the Tokyo games of 1964. Of course, I'll be watching the games again this year.What fascinates me most about them is the very high level of competition, the fact that a good number of world records in events that measure success in absolute numbers -- track and field, swimming, weightlifting, etc. -- get broken. It makes me wonder about human athletic potential, about limits, about whether, in fact, athletic potential is limited at all.Some of today's world records are so astonishing that it's difficult to believe they could be broken: Carl Lewis' 9.86-second 100-meter --; Mike Powell's 29 foot, 4.5-inch broad jump; Ken Lain's 725-pound bench press; Naim Suleymangolu's 414-pound clean and jerk.

Maryland cornerback Nolan Carroll, who suffered a broken leg in the first game of the season, was drafted in the fifth round (145th overall) by the Miami Dolphins. The senior captain missed the rest of the season, and many observers point to his loss as a reason for the Terps' 2-10 season and shoddy pass defense. Carroll missed the NFL Combine, but was impressive during Maryland's Pro Day in March for NFL scouts. He posted the top marks in the 40-yard dash (4.39), pro agility drill (4.21)

Milliner rose, Moore fell Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The biggest winner at the combine was Alabama's Dee Milliner, who ran sizzling times of 4.31 and 4.37 in the 40, cementing his position as the top cornerback in this class. Coming into the combine, there were questions about whether he has elite speed. Answered. The Lions will have a difficult time passing on him with the fifth pick. At the opposite end is Texas A&M's Damontre Moore, who came in as a top defensive end prospect but ran just one 40 - a lumbering 4.95 - then passed on a second because his hamstrings were tight.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Team Maryland is coming home today from the 1995 Special Olympics World Games with 31 medals and a lifetime of memories.The Olympic flame was extinguished yesterday during closing ceremonies at the Yale Bowl. However, the highly successful Games -- which featured a record 7,200 athletes (including 57 from Maryland) with mental retardation from 140 countries -- were overshadowed because a Special Olympian from Nepal is believed to have drowned.Soccer player Ramesh Mali, 21, was last seen Thursday swimming with fellow members of the Nepalese delegation at a state park in Madison.

It's fair to say that Jim Bardsley and his son, James Bardsley III, have formed a powerful relationship over the past several months. Jim Bardsley took up powerlifting in the early 1980s in college and competed for more than a decade, but he drifted away from the sport when he and his family moved in the mid-1990s from the Philadelphia area to Georgia. Now living in Hanover, the elder Bardsley has returned to lifting, and he has gained a partner in his son. They seem to have inspired each other.

Ravens linebacker Robert McCune doesn't go to beaches. He usually doesn't wear tank-top or sleeveless T-shirts. Because when he does, it causes a lot of commotion. McCune has earned a lot of nicknames from his teammates. Some call him "Swoll," short for swollen. Some call him "Rock." Others call him "Herc" or "Muscles." In a business in which bodies are chiseled and molded every day into human mountains, McCune probably has the best in the NFL. There are estimates that he has only 6 percent to 8 percent body fat. Even his muscles have muscles.

River Hill junior running back Michael Campanaro reflects on Dec. 9, 2006, with mixed emotions. There's a feeling of disappointment, as the Hawks, playing in their first state championship game, lost to Prince George's County power Friendly, 37-18. But Campanaro, who rushed for more than 200 yards that day and caught a touchdown pass, also looks at the game as validation in his quest to play big-time college football. "That championship game, playing against the best team in the state with all those great athletes, I think I proved to a lot of people and myself that I can play against the top competition.

It's fair to say that Jim Bardsley and his son, James Bardsley III, have formed a powerful relationship over the past several months. Jim Bardsley took up powerlifting in the early 1980s in college and competed for more than a decade, but he drifted away from the sport when he and his family moved in the mid-1990s from the Philadelphia area to Georgia. Now living in Hanover, the elder Bardsley has returned to lifting, and he has gained a partner in his son. They seem to have inspired each other.

I feel overwhelmed by the sea of fitness equipment at my health club. There is no way I can get to every machine. If I can fit just 10 into my routine, which 10 would you suggest? With more than 600 muscles in the human body, it makes sense that gyms have more than 10 pieces of fitness equipment. For optimal benefit, you should be learning to use as many of these machines as you can. That said, if I had to choose 10, I would go with the following (always have a trainer introduce you to a machine before trying it on your own)

So far this year, Bowling Book Prep has traveled to West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania to compete in powerlifting competitions. Soon, however, the 22nd Annual Maryland High School Boys Bench Press Championships, the state's largest high school showcase will again come to the western Carroll County school. It's a competition the Thoroughbreds, now in their fifth year as hosts, have won the past two years. "The way the meet is set up, you can bring as many kids as you want, and we usually have a pretty high representation," said Mike Sunday, Bowling Brook's executive director and athletic director.

The River Hill girls basketball team's bench yesterday was like a revolving door and No. 8 Long Reach didn't have a solid answer for any combination Hawks coach Teresa Waters put on the floor. The depth that makes the second-ranked Hawks a favorite in Howard County overwhelmed the Lightning, as host River Hill posted a 69-53 victory. Senior forward Megan Buescher led five Hawks in double figures with 17 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore center Brittany Gordon added 10 points and eight rebounds and junior guard Marche Westray scored 11 points.

Lisa Aukland hesitates when someone calls her a bodybuilder. She is well aware of the sport's negative image. The fact that she recently completed her doctoral degree in pharmacy makes her even more conscious of the steroids and other drugs some bodybuilders take to bulk up. Aukland makes it a point to compete only in events that rigorously screen for drug use. "I want a level playing field," she says, noting that the "drug-free" competitions she enters...

Though inspirational to some, former President George Bush's sky dive over the Arizona desert last week at age 72 was less on the leading edge and more part of a trailing afterburn. Many other elder-heroes have been there and done that and much more.Why, just last June, Al Dietzel, an executive at The Limited, the retailing conglomerate, celebrated his 65th birthday with his own parachute jump -- which came before 18 holes of golf (a 93, with no cart) and after two sets of singles tennis, a 180-pound bench press and a two-mile run at a nine-minute-a-mile pace.

COLLEGE PARK - In the weight room, Maryland defensive end Durrand Roundtree has always been the main event. It wasn't unusual during summer lifting sessions for his teammates to gather around a bench and watch in amazement as he pressed 500 pounds of iron above his 260-pound body. But Roundtree, probably the strongest player pound-for-pound in the Atlantic Coast Conference, hopes he'll stride toward prominence on the field by becoming a feared pass rusher to complement Randy Starks in the final half of his final season for the Terrapins (5-2)

WASHINGTON - To mix a sporting metaphor, in Doug Collins' mind, Michael Jordan should be the Mariano Rivera of the NBA, the guy who can come in off the bench and slam the door on opponents late in games. If the Washington Wizards are to reach the playoffs, Collins, the team's coach, will have to hope that Jordan has given up his desire to be the starter that opens and closes the deal. The early indications, if pronouncements from yesterday's Media Day sessions leading into the opening of training camp in Wilmington, N.C., are to be believed, are that Jordan might, ever so slowly, be coming around to Collins' perspective.