02/11/2026
Itās been 420 days since the last time I stepped on the platform. I know there were rumblings about ābeing doneā, but this should be a good indication that I aināt going anywhere yet š so now that weāre past that ⦠letās talk about Holy Wars III.
I know thereās a lot of negativity swirling around the meet, but one thing Iāve learned during my time is sport is that the people who are usually chirping the loudest werenāt good enough to be invited, nor interested enough to be there and that is what leads to these issues.
āTheseā people did not see all the positives about the meet ( & did a phenomenal job), they didnāt see the time and effort put into making sure the majority of all the little things were taken care of - for the lifters- and they sure as s**t didnāt see all of the quality lifts and consistent judging. āTheseā people want to bash something that they donāt understand, that they didnāt see live, and from a camera angle that doesnāt do anyone or anything justice. There were ~40 lifters which means ~120 squats took place. Did the judges get them all right? Absolutely not. Did some things get whites that shouldnāt have? 100%, but thatās sports. In my opinion, if 95% of squat calls were solid - thatās a pretty good day! (Most Umpires in the MLB donāt have that high of a correct call %) So with that being said, the judging and bashing from people that werenāt there/donāt even compete in the sport is a joke and it does nothing but further a divide. Iām never getting an award for squatting deep, but I have been around the block long enough to know what a badly run meet is vs a well run meet, and this was 100% the latter.
Now that Iāve given my 0.02, letās get into the lifting ..
S: 2/3 1074ā
1163(3lbPR)ā
1223 (ATWR)ā Handled it well, but didnāt have it.
B: 2/3 727ā 727ā
749 ā
Bench woes continue š«©
D: 1/1 815ā
A lot of people asked why I only took one pull and didnāt take another for the win. While I did smoke my opener, the space was cold and I never was able to get warm all day and we unfortunately pulled a hammy. I didnāt feel it was the smart move to take another one and make it worse, so we shut it down (more in comments)