Sammi Nichols and Donny Shankle competed on March 3rd and March 2nd respetively at the Arnold in Columbus, Ohio.  Donny Shankle competed in the World Team trials portion of the meet.  He missed his opener Snatch at 160kg, then came back with successfull attempts at 160 and 165.  He made an easy opener of 196 in the clean and jerk to make the World Team and remain in the top spot in the USA in his weight class, then had two disapointing misses with 201kg.  The first time he missed the jerk, unusuall for Donny, then the second time he missed the clean forward.

Sammi had the meet of a lifetime, 6 for 6, with 4 lifts that were personal records and another one that tied a previous record.  She opened with a 60kg snatch (tied her old PR) then did 2nd and 3rd attemps fo 62 and 64, both new personal records.  In the clean and jerk, she opened with 72kg, the only lift of the meet for her that was under her previous record.  76kg on the second attempt was a new PR, and 80kg on the third was beyond anything she had even attempted to jerk in training.  More significantly, all her lifts were virtually perfect, no struggling to stand or stabilize, everything perfectly in the groove.  Congrats Sammi!!! 

Recent training lifts at WFW include a 135kg double in the snatch by Trey Goodwin, a 105kg snatch by Grant Goodwin.  Many of our younger lifters have set personal records lately, in fact on one day immedietly prior to the Arnold, we had 15 personal records set in one training session on snatch and clean and jerk.   

Trey and Grant Goodwin came in to train today. Trey did 120X2, 125X2, and 130X2 pm snatch, then followed with 140X2, 150X2, and 160X2 on the clean and jerk. One of the better workouts I have ever seen him do. His “little brother” Grant, who isnt so little anymore, started out with a 100kg snatch. Not bad considering it is the first snatch he has done in 3 years. He cleaned 130 several times rather easily, but had misses at 135 and 140kg. With a little technical work and a little more speed, he should be good for 150kg on the clean really soon.

Its been a couple of weeks, and yes we should have had something up here about the Texas State Championships before now. No detailed results for this meet, but one thing stands out. Every single lifter from WFW did both a competition Personal Record snatch, and a competition PR clean and jerk. You cant get much better than that.

Caleb Ward did a 120 double in the snatch, then hitting a 130 snatch at the Texas state championships. Rose hit an 85kg Jerk off the rack yesterday, and came VERY CLOSE with 90kg.

Its been a while since I updated this and I will probably leave some stuff out.  Best thing to happen in the last few days is Josh Robinett clean and jerking 50kg, a weight he has missed a few times lately.  He followed that up with a back squat of 55kg for a set of 5, and knowing how effecient Josh is, that tells me he is ready for a clean and jerk of 53 or 54kg pretty soon.  Justin Brimhall has been training pretty well, hitting a snatch of 120 pretty easily, a clean of 160 also easy, and last night did 200kg for a triple on clean deadlift.  Donny is in Hawaii with James, and ready to get geared up for the Pan-Am games qualifyer at the Arnold.

Donny and I got Moppy from DFW airport today, and went immedietly to train.  They both took some light lifts to rest and recuperate so that we could hit it hard in the morning.  Moppy snatched to 110 and clean and jerked to 120, Donny did 5 powersnatches with 130 then powercleaned and jerked 170kg.

Donny got back today from visiting friends and family, and did two training sessions. After no snatches or clean and jerks for almost two weeks, we worked straight up to 167 in the snatch, went back to doubles with 130 and 140, then tried for a 160 double, hit the first and missed the second. Clean and jerks up to 175, some clean pulls with 215, and 3 sets of 3 in the front squat with 180kg rounded out the workout. Later in the evening he did 130 for 5 singles on the snatch, then 5 singles on the snatch pull with 170, then more clean pulls.

In the same workout, Neiman was very consistent with 27kg snatches, 5 in a row with great technique. She clean and jerked 30kg for 5 singles then squatted a PR set of 5, 47.5kg.

I talked to Tracy Steinberg last night (the meet director), the deadline of December 27th is a POSTMARKED deadline, not a recieved deadline, so that gives some of you a little breathing room. She also said she was likely extending the deadline a few days due to many requests, but I wouldnt count on this. Mary was nice enough to print off 25 entry forms for us, which I will be bringing to practice. The date of the meet is January 20-21st. I would reall like to take as many of you as possible, so mark your calender and get the entry forms turned in!

Also for those of you who are used to just giving me your entry form, for this meet everyone is mailing their own entry form in.

Last night Neiman snatched a Personal Record of 30kg, not bad for a girl who just turned 9 years old. It was one of those lifts I wish I had a video of, absolutely perfect. Other noteworthy performances were Blaine Townsend clean and jerking 85kg for 10 singles that were all really solid, and Kyle Lauck clean and jerking 57.5kg for 8 singles that were very solid.