Beer bullies viii recap

On Saturday, the 18th of January, over 50 athletes gathered at Liberty Performance Training in Phoenix, AZ for the Eighth Annual Beer Bullies strongman competition. From complete novices to experienced vets of the sport, one thing that tied them together was fun. Although I have only been present for two iterations of this competition, it has consistently been one of the most friendly and exciting shows in amateur strongman that I have seen. I asked event organizer Zac Miller about his beginnings with strongman and Beer Bullies, and his thoughts on the last several years of the competition.

It was all smiles as athletes locked out their deadlifts

Zac began his involvement with the competition in its very first year, when a mentor at GCU asked if he had any interest in strongman. Despite having never touched a strongman implement before, he jumped right into the sport. He has competed in all but 2 Beer Bullies competitions since then, instead hosting and organizing in 2023 and 2025. When asked about what the biggest change in the event has been since 2018, Zac said, “it’s been awesome watching the community grow over the years. The first Beer Bullies was like 20-22 people. Since then we’ve had 4 years at 50+(athletes), including 1 at 60+and 1 at 70+!” He also remarked that the implementation of Iron Podium for organizing and running the events has been a huge game changer.

If Zac had any concerns about taking up the reigns of organizing this competition, they should certainly be quelled now, as the show went off without a hitch. Athletes began their day with a Mammoth Bar deadlift for max reps. The 10 foot long bar began at 225lb with the Lightweight Novice Women, where Sara O’Neill won with 13 reps, and ended at 545lb for the Super Heavyweight Men. Mathias Milford took first in this event for the Super Heavyweights with a whopping 10 reps. Other standout performances include Jake Hancock with an unbelievable 22 reps of 365lb to secure first in a packed Heavyweight Novice Men’s class, and Chloe Esperance, who pulled 23 reps of 250lb for first place in the Heavyweight Novice Women.

Athletes moved on to a pressing medley, featuring a log, axle, and circus dumbbell. Athletes would press the log and axle in order for a singular rep each, before cleaning and pressing the circus dumbbell as many times as possible. Melody Steiger maintained her lead here in the LW Novice Women, with a score of 5 in the event, while Brittany Shepard took the lead from Chloe in the HW Novice Women with a score of 15. Jake Hancock, Randy Skinner, Bodie Giron, and Taylor Dutcher all were the only ones to score in the double digits in their respective weight classes, securing much needed points.

The weather could not have been better for a day of strongman

The event next moved outside, and with palm trees and spectators lining the parking lot, athletes began a farmer’s walk event with an interesting twist. Rather than just pick the farmer’s handles and walk, athletes would have to deadlift the implements twice before picking them one more time and traveling 40’. There they’d stop, deadlift the implements 2 more times, and traverse another 40’ to complete the event. There were stumbles and falls, and missed commands, as athletes adapted to this event. Randy Skinner and Bodie Giron put in blistering fast times in the Open Lightweight Men and Open Middleweight Men’s weight classes respectively, but special note goes to Jud Von Kolnitz and Timothy Edwards in the Masters Men 60+, who were just over a tenth of a second apart in their runs. Things stayed tight between Jud and Timothy all day, as the two alternated winning events, eventually sharing 1st place in their class. Jud’s daughter Megan also competed, and could be heard cheering for her dad all day with the rest of the attendees and athletes.

Competitor Sara grins through her max distance sandbag carry

Staying outside, athletes headed into another moving event, a max distance sandbag carry. It was a close race in the Open Middleweight Men, with 3 competitors managing over 200 feet with a 225lb sandbag, but Bodie Giron continued his dominance of the class with yet another event win. The Lightweight Novice Women also had a close race, with all 3 managing over 400 feet with a 100lb sandbag, but the farthest distance of the day would go to Christina Tice, in the Masters Lightweight Women, who would do an astonishing 519 feet with a 100lb sandbag.

The competition would wrap up back inside, with the classic finale: a stone load. Athletes loaded 4 stones of ascending weight onto platforms of descending height, with the heaviest stone being in the Super Heavyweight Men’s class, at 340 pounds. Gabriel Foarde would end up lifting that stone and completing his whole run for the event win, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop Mathias Milford from securing 1st place overall for the Super Heavyweights.

At the end of the day, your competition winners would be:

Novice Lightweight Women: Melody Steiger

Novice Heavyweight Women: Brittany Shepard

Open Lightweight Women: Megan Von Kolnitz

Open Middleweight Women: Diana Flores

Open Super Heavyweight Women: Lacy Hughes

Masters Lightweight Women: Christina Tice

Masters Middleweight Women: Miriam Rojas

Masters Heavyweight Women: Kelly Aasen

Novice Lightweight Men: Michael Mariea

Novice Heavyweight Men: Jake Hancock

Open Lightweight Men: Randy Skinner

Open Middleweight Men: Bodie Giron

Open Heavyweight Men: David Clark

Open Super Heavyweight Men: Mathias Milford

Masters Middleweight Men: Robert Schuman

Masters Lightweight Men 50+: Daniel Rathbun

Masters Men 60+: Jud Von Kolnitz and Timothy Edwards

Masters Heavyweight Men: Brandon Ford

Congratulations to all of these athletes, and well done to all who participated in Beer Bullies VIII, whether complete novice or experienced strength athlete. I hope to see you all again next year!