SPF Ohio Championships Meet Summary

Well, my first meet has come and gone. I competed along with 50+ fellow lifters in Columbus Ohio for the SPF Ohio Championships. We had a large group of lifters go down representing Absolute Performance and we all had a great time.

I weighed in the night before the meet @ 261#. This was right around what I had been weighing for the past couple months. I lifted in the 275 class.

Meet Day

I was nervous as hell all morning as I had no idea what to expect from this meet, I had one goal in mind, hit all my openers and just get through a whole meet to experience it. I ended up having a pretty descent first meet.

Squat

Warm ups went ok, I felt that I timed everything right but I was so nervous that I was getting out of position and making things really hard on myself, it didn't help that I was warming up with Louie Simmons either! The guy is in his 60's an he was handling the same weights I was, insane!

Opener- 675 I missed grooved this on the way down, but there was no way I wasn't standing up with it. 3 whites and my nerves settled a bit

2nd- 710 I had taken 695 twice in the gym and done it easily so I picked 710 for my second lift. Smoked it! 3 whites and was feeling great.

3rd- 750 I thought this weight would be challenging but makeable. Everything felt great on the way down, I got 3/4 the way up and stalled, the spotters took it from me. I got a little to far forward at the top and lost my hips, this will be a second attempt in August!


Bench Press

Warm ups were ok, I had to go very slow and take a long time in between lifts because the flight before mine was huge. 435 was my last warm up and it was easy.

Opener- 455 I had some trouble getting this down and spent a lng time at the bottom trying to touch, I finally got the press call and it went up pretty easy.

2nd & 3rd - 500 I pressed this well in the gym and felt I definately had it on meet day. However, I had a hard time getting the bar to touch and jst didn't have enough left to press it up. I need alot more work in the shirt and maybe Santa will bring me a new Phenom this year because those shirts seem to be amazing and alot easier to use.

Deadlifts-

I was smoked by the time deadlifts came around, the meet started at 9 and it was about 430 when the deadlift started. It had been a long day to say the least.

Warm ups
Everything felt good, I was tired but was still moving weights well. My last warmup was 545 and it flew up easy.

Opener- 585 no problem at all 3 whites

2nd- 620- This was a 20# PR and it went up with no problem 3 whites.

3rd- 650- I felt it was go big or go home for the last lift and this would have given me 1800 +. Unfortunately I was smoked and barely moved it off the floor

Tom had a good meet as well, he set PR's in all 3 lifts, squat: 665  bench: 455 deadlift: 595 at 198 bodyweight.

Nate had to pull out of the meet due to an abdominal/hip injury he got warming up for the squat. He will come back stronger for our next meet in August and finally get that 1000# squat!

Paul Childress had a huge 2700 total going 1125, 800!, and 775. The 800 bench and total were both PR's.

Gino went 9/9 in his first meet, and Sean Harvey had one hell of a deadlift of 650 @ a bodyweight of around 190.

I would like to thank all the guys that came down to handle including everyone from the Tonawanda Barbenders- Tom, Gary, Mike, Paul, Chris, and Dave. Also thanks to Sully, Sheldon Battle, and Nate Harvey for their help handling me. Thanks to Paul Childress for for all his coaching and training help. And a huge thanks to Tom and Nate for being great training partners. Time to get ready for the next one!