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Just some random observations and after thoughts of the 12th annual event in Cape Girardeau, Mo, held Nov. 17.
The meet went over well, not a huge one, but nice and smooth. As far as heavy hitters I thought the number of big number producers was down, but we did have a few major highlights with 280 lb. Travis Rubey, and 19 year old Jadako Talton, who trains with Rickey Dale Crain. I was also thoroughly impressed with some of our benchpressers. 50 year old Greg Chrun upped the full meet benchpress record for the 242 lb. Open class with his 485 lb. lift. Ed Finnell also continues to progress, and rammed up an awesome 440 lb. lift, increasing his own Masters record.
I thought the 132 lb. class was especially interesting with John Hunn emerging victorious over Above All's Kevin Otte. The two actually tied on bodyweight with Hunn being lighter after having pulled the deadlift to tie things. How cool is it to have someone in your class you are so close in strength with? If I were either of these two guys, I'd be on the phone with the other to make sure we were planning on entering the same meet next year. Nice to have someone so close to push you.
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The Womens 148 lb. benchpress title was contested between Kathy Jones and Maureen Post and was a close competition between the two. Jones, who earns her keep as a Police Officer, came out on top by 2.5 kilos over Post who makes Tums for a living. These two are both on the Masters BP World Team and will compete in Texas in April. They will offer a nice one-two punch for the team and will represent St. Louis well.
More on Travis Rubey had he made weight in the 275's, he would have moved himself up quite a bit on the 275 lb. Top 100 list, published by "Powerlifting USA". However, a 760 deadlift is nothing to sneeze at, at any weight. He's only 10 lbs. from breaking Vae Mafuli's SHW state deadlift record of 771. I don't see why he cannot continue to make progress and overtake this mark that has stood for at least 8 years.
Big Jerry Pledger wasn't quite as big at this meet. He's lost quite a bit of weight and is down to 300 lbs. It was a noticeable loss and he looked very good. Not a bad choice either, sometimes things just get away from us in pursuit for bigger and bigger lifts that concern for our health gets put on the back burner. All in all he still keeps on going, which in my book counts for something.
I noticed quite a few newer lifters at the meet. It's nice to see young kids especially getting involved. With the new blood comes inexperience though. There were a few times where lifters had either opened up too high, or made big jumps after missing lifts. The result was that these lifters bombed out and their day was over early. As a rule of thumb it's good to open up light, and maybe even to open up SUPER light. You can always jump up, but you can't go down….Perhaps we could start a section on tips for new lifters.
Thanks to all of you who bought a Womens National team calendar. These will help to pay for the ladies trip to the Worlds next year. Really, I can't think of a group that gets the short end of the deal more than them. Their Nationals often has a lower turnout, less sponsors and less spectators. So I was glad to help them anyway I could. The shirts for our meet didn't quite turn out as planned however. The place that does our printing lost their graphics guy a couple days before they were going to print. With that, they could only print a very simple logo for us instead of the one I sent them. We do have something completed already for the State meet next year that should knock your socks off though.
This meet was also a learning experience on our part. We decided to leave the cumbersome 100 lb. plates at home and use the 45 & 55 lb. plates instead. A problem came up a few times when loading some of the higher attempts with the additional plates. No fault of the refs on the few misloads, it's a task to go error free the entire day. Next time we will be sure to bring the 100 lb. plates to make the loading easier for the refs. We also learned that foregoing the equipment check maybe isn't such a great idea. I had the task of informing a lifter in the back that his Velcro shirt wouldn't fly on the platform. Luckily he had plenty if time to get another one on and was appreciative of the heads up. He was unaware of exactly what was allowed and not allowed, which is not his fault. Being a little shorthanded on Friday left us to skip it and just verbally go over it with the lifters. We'll work towards making it clear what is allowed in the future.
I had as much fun at this meet than any I can remember. It was good to see everyone again. Rickey Dale Crain was also on hand selling his products and coaching a few lifters. Before the meet began he gave a nice squat seminar and had a lot of good things to offer.
That about wraps things up for the 2001 Cape meet. Thanks to George Heleine of Rolla, Mo for giving us a fresh view on the meet in his full article! Thanksalso to the Hubers, George and Denise. George sounds as good as ever on the michrophone and his wife Denise does an excellent job running the table with him. And of course thanks to the rest of the staff that continue to provide a great service for the lifters. They are referees Sam, Lance, Wally, Maureen & Jim. Others include Karma, Sue, Ted, and also Nicholas, who did a fine job playing our music for us. The Missouri USAPL has the HS Nationals next March and may be holding a qualifier for HS kids in January. If you know someone that still needs to qualify, e-mail me! The state meet is set for May 4th.
The guy from Illinois that cover Missouri Powerlifting,
Rick Fowler
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