World's strongest dawg

The UW baseball team isn't composed of the world's strongest men, but strongest Dawgs? You could say so.

Dan Jahn, Washington's assistant strength and conditioning coach, calls this grueling competition -- now in its third year -- World's Strongest Dawg for good reason.

"They're doing all kinds of things that you would not like to do," Jahn jokingly said about the event he created.

Would not like to do, indeed.

35 Husky baseball players concluded three weeks of grueling workouts, an intensive strength-training period that Jahn calls "three weeks of hell."

The players were split into seven teams and competed in eight events. The team with the most points after the competition -- points were awarded to the top-three finishers after each round -- was crowned "World's Strongest Dawg."

After these events, though, all the competitors deserve the title.

The individual challenges kicked things off. Each team had to select a player for a rope hang (last man standing wins), push-up contest (hold the position for five seconds), sit ups, plate holds (45 pounds in each hand, last man holding them wins) and a squat-and-hold contest (squat for as long as you can).

Completing these was remarkable. Doing four-minutes-and-50-seconds worth of push-ups (Brad Boyer), roughly 200 sit-ups (Geoff Nichols) and six minutes of squatting (Adrian Gomez) was ungodly.

Team events followed, offering a more impressive show of strength than those before. They started easy and got much more challenging.

To start: The fireman's-carry relay race. The front guy in line picked up the second guy, ran up a hill and back down. Then the man being carried grabbed a hold of the next guy in line. First team with all players to carry and be carried won.

Next: the golf-cart pull (pull a cart attached with a metal chain about 100 yards) Last: the car push (just like it sounds, up a 80-yard-long incline).

"It's challenging, but it's a lot of fun," said senior Zach Clem who won the plate hold event, lasting for 3:12.

Although competitive ("because you get team bragging rights," sophomore Matt Hague said) and quite humorous (guys did not hesitate to comment on each other's bodies), the "three weeks of hell" and, ultimately, the World's Strongest Dawg, is about more than just strength training.

"Doing this stuff here, it's probably the most difficult stuff we're ever going to do in our lives," said Hague. "Doing it together, if we can accomplish this, we can accomplish anything together."

Jahn adds: "It's a team bonding thing. It's kind of a 'welcome to college' thing for youngsters."

Players offered teammates tremendous support and encouragement throughout the day.

After nearly two hours of competition, the exhausted bunch curiously gathered around Jahn as he calculated the results.

The winner: Team Seven, including Clem, Michael Burgher, Kiel Lillibridge, Nick Hagadon and Joey Dunn. They won a personalized T-shirt designed by Jahn and what he calls a "get-out-of-jail-free card" (allowing them to skip a training drill) to go along with the title.

"They competed well, encouraged each other. I thought it went well," said Jahn.

The World's Strongest Dawg title was well warranted on this day.