NORWICH – Dan Conant, Kegan Levesque, and Taylor Moore traveled to Las Vegas last week for the Untied States Powerlifting Association Tested Nationals, where they returned home as National Champions.

The three qualified for Nationals after the second Norwich USPA meet in May.

The Vegas meet was by invite only, where Dan, Kegan, and Taylor may have been the only powerlifters from New York, as well as our local Chenango County area to attend the biggest meet of the year.

Conant and Levesque both won their weight class in bench only. Each powerlifter had three attempts, where Conant won his division with lifting 381 pounds as Levesque lifted 462 pounds to win.

For Conant, it was his fourth time at Nationals, but his first time taking first.

“The majority of the lifters at Nationals didn’t make bench their lifestyle like we did,” Conant said. “ They were more focused on the deadlift and squat, but we were focused on all three.”

Conant has also been a mentor for many inspiring powerlifters, such as Taylor Moore, who won the deadlift only division at Nationals.

“I was bench pressing one day in the winter/ spring of 2024 and had Dan spotting me,” Moore said. “Some random guy peeked his head around the cable machine and was impressed with how much I was benching as a girl, which was 115 lbs. He and Dan mentioned there was a meet in September right at the YMCA. Dan checked the records for my weight class and there were no state records set, so I figured why not give it a shot. I set the records at that meet, and continued to train alongside Dan and a few others and acclimated myself with the powerlifting competition environment.”

Following that encounter, Moore began actively training to become more involved in the sport and get ready for the Norwich meet.

“Two months leading up to the meet I began working with an online coach who gives me programs weekly specific to powerlifting,” Moore said. “The training has a lot of similar workouts to what I was doing previously, however they’re more tailored to my current goals. Some weeks are much heavier than others, but there are some weeks that are easier or lighter than others as well.”

Her active training paid off during both Norwich meets and beyond.

At this year’s Nationals, Moore had her three attempts of Deadlifts, where she secured both the first and second attempts. Her first attempt was 237 pounds while she pushed herself at the second attempt with 259 pounds, which at the end of the meet, helped her achieve the victory.

She continues to stay on track with her coach and continues to work on her goals to only get better and stronger.

“I am hoping to deadlift 285 by the October meet in Norwich, and then 300 by the end of this year,” Moore said. “By the end of the year, I’d love to bench press 135 lbs and squat 225.”

The third annual Norwich USPA meet will take place on October 12, where the event looks to reach 60 participants. The second meet in May saw 41 competitors, but Conant hopes to reach the 60.

Congratulations, Dan, Kegan, and Taylor.