Powering his way to glory
ADAMS TWP — By his own admittance, football was not Jerome Nacey’s “cup of tea.”
“I played one season between eighth and ninth grade,” the Mars resident said. “It just wasn’t for me.”
But lifting weights? Different story.
Nacey, now 23, began lifting weights his freshman year in high school. He continued such workouts when he went to Penn State Behrend in Erie for college.
“I was working out in the gym up there one day and found out they had a power-lifting club,” Nacey recalled. “I didn’t even realize what I had been doing all that time was actually power-lifting ... I was invited to join the club. That’s where everything started.”
And it’s gotten to the point where Nacey now owns state, national and world records in the squat and dead-lift. He also won his weight class (234 pounds) at the Drug-Tested Nationals in Las Vegas in July and at the 2023 International Power-lifting League (IPL) Drug-Tested Championships in Coventry, England, last month.
At Las Vegas, Nacey’s squat was 717 pounds, his bench-press 397 pounds and his dead-lift 761 pounds. The latter figure were state, national and international records.
He qualified for the IPL world event by winning the Open and Junior divisions in his weight class and placing third overall.
“There’s a scoring system that factors in the weight you lifted with your gender and how much you weigh,” Nacey said. “I scored 510.5 points that way and qualified to go to England.”
Once he got there, he went right to work.
Nacey’s squat at the IPL world event was 729 pounds, again setting state, national and world records. He bench-pressed 408 and his dead-lift of 766 pounds broke his own previous records.
“I’m always surprised when I do well at competitions,” Nacey said. “What I’m really trying to do when I compete is break records. That’s what I’m into.”
His first-ever power-lifting competition was Dec. 11, 2021, in Erie. He competed in a Lift-A-Thon for charity in Erie as well, did well in those events and pursued further competition.
Now he’s trying to decide whether to move on to a larger federation, such as the International Power-lifting Federation (IPF).
“I’m torn right now,” he admitted. “I have some options there. But I recently bought a house and am busy fixing it up or right now.”
Nacey majored in mechanical engineering at Behrend. He recently took over running his family’s construction business.
His lifting workouts in the gym run anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours, though he doesn’t lift every day.
“Putting that much weight on your body every day is taxing and wouldn’t be a good thing,” he said. “When I’m preparing for a meet, I’m in the gym more frequently.
“I go multiple times each week. It varies, depending on how I feel.”
Nacey said there will be more power-lifting competitions in his future. He just doesn’t know what umbrella they will be under.
“I’ll sort things out. But I definitely want to keep on going,” he said.
