Dariotis Memorial recap

Ben, Molly, Stephen, and Hawk at the Dariotis Memorial.

The first meet of the new year is in the books! Ben, Molly, Stephen, and Hawk all lifted yesterday in the 2014 Dariotis Memorial WL Championships at Thrush Sports Performance Center in Sumner. While we took a smaller team to this meet than usual, the meet itself was much larger than expected, and I heard some people say that it was the largest meet in Washington State history. So many competitors makes for a very long day: the first session weighed-in at 8:30 AM and the awards finished just before 10:00 PM. That's a long day!

I lifted in the first session as an 85. After a terrible day of snatching, I at least came back and made all of my clean and jerks, finishing with a 6 kg competition PR clean and jerk and a 4 kg PR total despite only making my opener on the snatch. I took 2nd place in the 85 kg class.

Molly, competing in her first WL meet since last years Dariotis Memorial, had an outstanding day lifting in the 69 kg class. She made her first two snatches at 63 and 67 kg, and just missed what would have been an all-time PR at 71 kg on her third attempt. The clean and jerk competition went equally well for her, as she made her first two clean and jerks, finishing with 86 kg and a 153 kg total to secure the win in the 69 kg class and qualify herself for the 2014 National Championships and the American Open!

Stephen and Hawk both lifted in the last session of the day (in the 94 and 105+ kg categories, respectively). Now, to add some context to this, remember that this was at least one of the biggest meets in Washington State history, and all in one day. With 20-30 competitors in each session, the sessions lasted way longer than expected, pushing everything further and further behind schedule. I fully expected to be heading home from the meet by 6 or 7 PM at the latest, but this final session didn't even start until around 8 I think, so Stephen and Hawk had been sitting (or often times, standing) around for hours. Despite this, they both came through and made big lifts. Stephen OPENED with a big competition PR snatch at 100 kg and SMOKED it. It was honestly probably the best snatch I've ever seen from Stephen, regardless of the weight on the bar, and he looked like he was capable of much more. He made his opening clean and jerk at 127 kg as well, which I think must also have been a competition PR, and a big competition PR total. Hawk lifted last, and after scaring the heck out of his coach in the warm-up room (as is typical), he came out and made his opening snatch at 110 kg easily. He missed his next two, but then came back and swept the clean and jerks, making a big competition PR clean and jerk and tying his all-time PR clean and jerk at 155 kg, and finishing with a PR total of 265 kg to give him the win in the 105+ kg class!

Big congrats and thanks are in order to Molly, Stephen, and Hawk for their great performances and for representing our team so well. This was a great way to end the training cycle, and makes me anxious to get back in the gym and get back to work! Week 1 will be posted shortly!