99 GCTS Airman sets USPA American squat record Published July 15, 2011 By 1st Lt. Laura Balch Nellis Public Affairs NELLIS PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Nev. -- An Airman from the 99th Ground Combat Training Squadron here set a new United States Powerlifting Association American record for the squat during the USPA National and Military National Powerlifting Championships held July 1-3, 2011, in Costa Mesa, Calif. Tech. Sgt. Rudy Garcia, 99 GCTS NCO in charge of combat arms, squatted 480 pounds while competing in the 181-pound Full Power Submaster Division for 35- to 39-year-olds and won first place overall in both the National and Military National titles. The full power division consists of three events: the squat, bench press and dead lift. During the competition, in addition to his record-setting squat, Garcia bench-pressed 375 pounds and dead-lifted 451 pounds. "My interest in powerlifting began after I met 1st Lt. Mike Tuchscherer, a highly-decorated 275-pound powerlifter," Garcia said. "My first powerlifting competition was in October 2007 and I have been competing ever since." When Garcia began powerlifting, he first competed only in the bench press division. Over time, he switched over and began competing in the full power division. To date, he has participated in 17 competitions in three different powerlifting federations: the USPA, United States Powerlifting Federation and United States of America Powerlifting. "This past competition was a world-qualifier, so in November I will be competing in the 2011 International Powerlifting League World Championship here in Las Vegas," Garcia said. "I'm extremely excited about competing at the world level and plan on training hard for it. My training cycle for the upcoming meet will start in a couple of weeks and my goals for the competition are to nail a 501-pound squat, 407-pound bench press and 501-pound dead lift." Some of Garcia's favorite powerlifting memories deal with setting new records. "I set my first State/American bench press record in June 2008 when I benched 407.85 pounds," Garcia said. "In December 2009, I set another State/American bench record when I benched 385.8 pounds and my first State/American dead lift record when I dead-lifted 474 pounds. Of course, setting my first American squat record at this past competition is also a great memory." Currently, the Air Force does not have its own powerlifting team, but Garcia does not let that slow him down. At his previous base, he worked with the Force Support Squadron to create a base powerlifting team that traveled to different meets around the country. "Without a doubt, the biggest powerlifting challenge I've had to overcome was the fact that I moved to Las Vegas in March and had to train solo for Nationals since I haven't met anyone here with the same training interests," Garcia said. "My new goal is to find other people interested in powerlifting and to start up a base team for Nellis and Creech so we can train and compete together." The 2011 IPL World Championship is scheduled to take place Nov. 30 - Dec. 4, 2011, in Las Vegas and Garcia will be competing in the full power division.
