If the year of 2022 was a banner year for USAPL Maine, 2023 was everything and then some.

Over the last year, USAPL Maine has quite literally soared to new heights while the baseline has expanded to levels that maybe from the outside looking in, didn’t seem possible. Referencing back to last years end of the year review, the collective was ready for an upswing based on several landmark moments and standout lifters that championed this elevation, pretty much in real time. In the year of 2023, we ran 6 meets across 3 different meet directors and had representation at:

Raw Nationals
High School Nationals
Teen Nationals
Junior Nationals
The Master’s World Cup
Northeast Regionals

On top of this, participation increased. Registered lifters from November to November (2022, 2023) increased by a massive 40.3%.

In particular, state chair, Andrew Graves, who is up for re-election this coming year, deserves a lot of credit for what he has been able to cultivate in his short time leading the charge for Maine drug-free lifters.

His commitment to excellence in terms of meet quality, live stream quality, and making sure he is available to provide clarification to new lifters, is what stands out, but he does so many things behind the scenes that if I listed them all, it would be quite an exhaustive list.

On top of this, more and more lifters from Maine are becoming referees, spotters and loaders, and in general, being of assistance at most meets ran in the area and with that, everything has increased exponentially.

End of The Year Awards

In the year of 2022, I wanted to bring to life a vision I had a long time ago. In most sports leagues, there is awards at the end of the year, no matter what the division. When you are in high school, there is awards at the school level, the conference level, the state level, and if you are talented enough, the national level. I figured, we have a lot of talented lifters in state that maybe do not get the notoriety that I believe they deserve and it would be a healthy exercise of celebration to reward a year of fantastic lifting. Last year, this was met with resounding praise. Lifters were awarded a physical trophy as well as a full breakdown on their year and why they were deserving, as well as an Instagram post.

Now, I try to make these awards as objective as possible, meaning, if you hit the standard, you are the recipient, however, inherently, there is going to be subjectivity to some awards and ultimately, my only request is you do not shun the ones you do not agree with. Maybe in the future, we can expand to a voting team, however, for now, this is how we are rocking.

As it stands, we have pretty even representation, with awards recipients hailing from 3 teams in state as well as some unattached lifters.

Team Hogan had 2 lifters represented.
Stand Strong had 3 lifters represented.
Team Kang had 2 lifters represented.
The other 3 lifters were unattached to a team.

The criteria for the awards was the following:

Men’s and Women’s Lifter of The Year: Lifters who competed twice or more and accomplished any or multiple of the following: represented Maine at the national level, broke state records, won best lifter medals.

Junior Lifter of the Year: Highest men’s and women’s DOTS coefficient for the year of 2023 in the jr. division.
Teen Lifter of the Year: Highest men’s and women’s DOTS coefficient for the year of 2023 in the teen division.
Master’s Lifter of the Year: Highest men’s and women’s DOTS coefficient for the year of 2023 in the masters division.
Rising Star Award: Lifter who made a splash in their first year of USAPL Maine competition.
Comeback Lifter of the Year: Lifter who came back from injury, poor performance, or hiatus to positive results.

Then finally, much like end of the year teams/all star teams in other sports, we have the following:

All USAPL Maine First Team: Top 5 Highest DOTS coefficient scores for 2023 (mens, womens)
All USAPL Maine Second Team: Next 5 Highest DOTS coefficient scores for 2023 (mens, womens)
USAPL Maine All Star Team: Highest Totals of 2023 in each open division weight class (mens, womens)

So, without further adieu, here is the second annual USAPL Maine End of the Year Awards breakdown.

Men’s Lifter of The Year

Andrew Graves, 82.5kg

Competed in 3 meets, 682.5kg/1504lbs total, 463.28 DOTS score (#3 in 2023), represented the state of Maine at USAPL Raw Nationals.

Andrew Graves is the recipient of this year’s men’s lifter of the year award. In a year where 20 male lifters registered a DOTS score of over 400, Andrew stood out with both the frequency of competition and the magnitude in which each meet represented. Andrew totaled: 662.5kg, 682.5kg, and 675kg in 3 separate states and 2 levels of the sport: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire (where he earned his first nationals qualifying total), and finally Tennessee where he put on the best meet possible while dealing with a rather extreme injury that left his squat down 12.5kg. Although this is not apart of the criteria of the award, Andrew did all this while reffing at over 20 meets throughout the year, including Nationals and the Olympia Pro, and co-directing 2 meets during this timeframe. As it stands, Andrew is currently #4 all time via DOTS in the state of Maine and is only getting stronger, this is well deserved and was quite the year of lifting for someone who might be known more these days for what he does outside the platform.

Others considered for this award include: Jon Lavoie, Kyle Lockhart, Michael Beaupre

Women’s Lifter of The Year

Marielle Opena, 52kg

Competed in 2 meets, 360kg/794lbs total, 440.87 DOTS score (#1 in 2023), represented Maine at USAPL Raw Nationals

This is Marielle’s second, and back to back, season of pure dominance and that was capstoned by her first appearance at Raw Nationals where she had a great day in very competitive 52kg open class. The recipient of the 2022 Women’s Lifter of the Year Award, Marielle added 15kg to her best 2022 meet total and had a phenomenal year in terms of cleaning up execution and simply going and lifting against some of the best lifters in the nation. Those who have been fortunate enough to watch her at meets, know she is not lacking any semblance of humbleness and is not the type to lift for notoriety. She is a phenomenal role model for all young female lifters coming into the sport and on top of a career as a medical doctor, certainly has found her groove of balancing the two disciplines at a high level.

Others considered for this award include: Carlee Cummings, Julia Wells

Men’s Junior Lifter of The Year

Ely Yang, 90kg

450.20 DOTS

Last year Ely came out of no where, putting up monster performances and solidifying himself as one of the most promising young lifters in the state. In 2023, everyone knew who he was and he backed that up quite handedly with great performance at USAPL Maine States in which he won the junior division and placed 2nd overall, and Northeast Regionals where he won the 90kg junior division. Ely is a very intense lifter that has his best days in the sport ahead of him, he will be a threat to repeat this award next year as he has another 1.5-2 years as a junior lifter!

Women’s Junior Lifter of The Year

Kaylee Dow, 67.5kg

365.65 DOTS

Kaylee was the 2022 Women’s Junior Lifter of the Year and followed that up with nothing short of another awesome year. She only competed once in 2022, but made than twice for good measure in 2023, putting 21 points on her DOTS score and 20kg to her total since then! Kaylee does not compete often, but when she does, she clearly means business. This being her final year as a junior lifter, a new junior will be crowned next year!

Men’s Teen Lifter of The Year

Hunter Brissette, 90kg

453.38 DOTS

He waited till one of the very last weekends to do so, but Hunter made his presence felt in his debut in a substantial way. I am unsure if he is aware of the magnitude of this debut, but I will try to do it justice here.

In his first career meet, weighing in at 83kg in the 90kg division he was able to accomplish the following:

Placed 2nd overall for best lifter.
State records in the T3 90kg squat, deadlift, and total.
His 672.5kg total was only 10kg away from his closer weight class, the 82.5kg class, total for OPEN age Raw Nationals.
Although I am uncertain if he is 19 until September, he qualified for T3 Nationals in the 90kg class.
He qualified for Collegiate Nationals in the 90kg class.
His 453.38 DOTS score is #9 this year for all men.

Needless to say, Hunter has a future and watching him and Ely battle for next years Junior award will be a treat!

Women’s Teen Lifter of The Year

Julia Wells, 75kg/82.5kg

378.46 DOTS

Julia is another repeat winner and with her performances at 2 separate national meets, I was very close to awarding her women’s overall lifter of the year in which she was extremely deserving. A simply incredible year, she started off placing 4th at High School Nationals, won best lifter at the Summer Sizzle meet as a tune up a weight class up, and then finally won her class at T2 Nationals in the 75kg class. Julia is poised to go over 400 on DOTS this year and will be a threat to become the first ever three-peat award winner, in this division next year.

Men’s Master’s Lifter of The Year

Ryan Montague, 140kg

432.75 DOTS

In his first USAPL meet since 2018, Ryan executed a solid day that led to him being our top master’s male lifter of the year. Ryan is a very explosive lifter and made most of his lifts move with tremendous speed on his singular performance at 2023 Maine States. Weighing in only .7kg over the 125kg class limit, he qualified for USAPL Master’s Nationals in the 140kg class and was well north of the 125kg QT. We hope to see Ryan out next year to defend his title!

Women’s Master’s Lifter of The Year

Miranda Derenburger, 67.5kg

374.40 DOTS

Miranda was able to make a splash in her first meet back since 2021, a meet in which she represented the state of Maine in Daytona Beach at Master’s Raw Nationals, in which she took home bronze. She executed very well and we hope to see her back on the platform in 2024 to defend her title once more!

Rising Star Award

Dani LaMarca, 75kg

Dani exploded on to the scene in 2023 with major performances in 3 separate meets. Competing twice in Maine, and once in New Hampshire, her first season as a powerlifter went incredibly well. Within just three meets Dani eclipsed a 400 DOTS score, came within striking distance of an open-aged division Nationals total, and was able to medal/place at 2/3 meets she participated in. Along with this, she was #4 on the year on DOTS, became #8 all time in this metric, and established a new state record squat in the 75kg class. Although this one was the closest, Dani is the most deserving, 2024 is set to be a huge year for her!

Others considered for this award include: Amir Broadus, Hunter Brissette

Comeback Lifter of the Year

Ian Brain, 82.5kg

Ian, pictured left, with coach Zach Kang.

The final award recipient this year is a very deserving one. Ian came back from a fairly severe back issue to compete not once, but three times in 2023, including once on the national stage. In those 3 meets, Ian was able to PR his total each time, totaling: 482.5kg at 2023 Maine States, 492.5kg at 2023 HS Nationals, and then finally 515kg at the 2023 Carrie Boudreau meet. Ian is riding a high this year that surely will blend into 2024 and we cannot wait to see what he puts up in what is hopefully a fully healthy year.

All-USAPL Maine Teams

All-USAPL Maine Men’s First Team

Erik Hogan 67.5kg
Jon Lavoie, 82.5kg/90kg
Andrew Graves, 82.5kg
Kyle Lockhart, 140kg+
Michael Beaupre, 67.5kg

All-USAPL Maine Men’s Second Team

Hunter Brissette, 90kg
Ely Yang, 90kg
Michael Pinkham, 110kg
Zachary Kang, 75kg
Ryan Montague, 140kg

All-USAPL Maine Women’s First Team

Marielle Opena, 52kg
Carlee Cummings, 67.5kg
Emily Grinnell, 90kg
Dani LaMarca, 75kg
Brittany Boxer, 60kg/67.5kg

All-USAPL Maine Women’s Second Team

Julia Wells, 75kg/82.5kg
Miranda Derenburger, 67.5kg
Macky Page, 75kg
Kayley Cimino, 75kg
Kaylee Dow, 75kg

USAPL Maine All Star Teams

USAPL Maine End of The Year Awards - 2023

If the year of 2022 was a banner year for USAPL Maine, 2023 was everything and then some.

End of The Year Awards