Chaney grad Schrauth championship power lifter

October 10, 2016 at 12:00a.m.

Ex-Cowboy owns 3 Oregon records

Jason Schrauth says he eats clean, but he can eat a lot.

His daily diet is minimum 5,000 calories. That translates to about three-to-four pounds of meat — mainly chicken, fish or turkey — plus a few cups of rice every day.

All that food has helped make Schrauth, a Chaney graduate, a super heavyweight power lifter. He owns three state records in Oregon and recently qualified for the 2016 World Powerlifting Association Worlds, which took place over the weekend in Clackamas, Ore.

Schrauth won his division and finished with a weight of about 1,600 pounds.

Schrauth said he’s not just in some gym lifting weights.

“It’s a whole different mindset that you have to have. When you just have recreational lifters, they just want to be in shape. When you start doing competitions, everything you do, everything you eat, every move you make has to prepare you for competition,” Schrauth said. “It involves more than being healthy. You have to be the biggest and strongest person that you can be.”

Since graduating from Wisconsin 2011, Schrauth has been living in Oregon. He held down a part-time job as a caretaker for elephants and other animals at the Portland Zoo until last year, when he changed jobs to accommodate his training for competitions. Schrauth, 30, played some high school football at Chaney, but he was more of a gym rat.

“Basically I’ve been lifting weights on and off since high school, but then a couple years ago I got back into it and wanted to see where it could take me,” Schrauth said. “I fell in love with it and have been committed to it ever since.”

Unlike most sports, age is not a liability in lifting. Schrauth said competitors often start in their late 20s because it’s a sport people are attracted to post-college.

This past year has been a good one for Schrauth on the lifting circuit. He owns three Oregon records in his weight class, the super-heavyweight RAW drug-tested division. In powerlifting, lifting RAW means — with some exceptions — lifting without a squat suit or bench shirt, wraps or belt.

Schrauth has the state’s bench press (419 pounds), dead lift (634 pounds) and total weight (1,618 pounds).

“I hope to get some national records and eventually some world records as time goes on,” Schrauth said. “I’ve only been in power lifting for one-and-a-half to two years and already have some state records.”

Schrauth was in Youngstown in recent weeks to do a little bit of training and visiting with family before returning to Oregon. Schrauth said it was the second time in a decade that he’s returned to the Mahoning Valley from the west coast. He’s found his place powerlifting and looks to build on what’s been a fast start to his career.

“I just hope to do well and hope to break some records while I’m out there,” Schrauth said.