Killeen, TX                                                                                     January 2003

SQUAT:    320lbs.        BENCH:    292lbs.        DEADLIFT:    375lbs.        TOTAL:    987lbs.

    NORTH CAROLINA POWERLIFTING TOTAL RECORD

MEET DESCRIPTION:

Over trained and emotionally drained Jen decided to take on the best female powerlifters in the country at the Women’s Powerlifting National Championships. Having competed at the World Bench Press Championships 6 weeks earlier, she was severely over trained and drained from the travel overseas. It is difficult to stay at such a high level of training for a long period of time. This was evident by the fact that Jen was not sleeping well and was suffering from intermittent muscle spasms and strains. Even with the close proximity of these two meets Jen still wanted to prove that she could compete with the powerlifters and was not just a bench presser. This was especially important due to the poor showing at last year’s nationals when she was suffering from a severe stomach virus. 

The Women’s Nationals was as big as ever and run very well. There were around 180 women competing at this year’s Nationals with 23 in the 132lb. weight class. Even though the meet was run very efficiently it was a very long day, about 9 hours from weigh-in to completion. To combat her over training Jen had skipped every other workout for the last couple weeks before the Nationals. Her weight came back down to 132lbs. pretty easily and she was feeling very well by meet day. After weigh-in Saturday afternoon she said she was feeling great. Jen had her work cutout for her though, having 4 previous National Champions in her weight class including Bettina Altizer, last year’s winner and a previous World Champion. 

The squat was first, by far Jen’s weakest event. Warm-ups went well and she said that she felt strong. She opened up with 292lbs. but got a little over excited and fell backwards on her first attempt and had to be caught by the spotters. She repeated 292 again and made it look easy. Having missed her first attempt and only having a 292 on the board Jen had to be conservative and chose 320lbs. for her last attempt. Knowing that she already had a squat on the board she destroyed 320 and probably had another 10 or 15 pounds. Having had to go conservative Jen was in 6^th place. Altizer having done over 400lbs. had put first place out of reach as well. 

With the dreaded squat out of the way it was now on to her specialty, the bench. In 6^th place Jen knew she needed to make up some ground in order to have a shot at 2^nd place. She opened up with an American and National Record of 275lbs. She then just continued to add to those records in each successive attempt. She did 286lbs. on her second attempt and then finished with 292lbs. These were not easy attempts, but they got the job done. She went from 6^th to 2^nd and had a 22lb lead on 3^rd place. Jen had also added 20lbs. to the American and National Records. She chose not to take a shot at the World Record wanting to save her energy for the deadlift.

On to the deadlift and with Jen in 2^nd place there were 4 other women who had a realistic chance to take the silver away from her. Jen opened light with 303lbs. hoping that the rest might forget about the “bencher” and just compete with each other. The 303 looked like a warm-up. With the others big opening deadlifts, Jen had now dropped to 4^th place. She was going to have to make up over 30 pounds to get the silver back. She than made a big jump to 341lbs. on her second attempt. She was hoping to make a big enough jump to get back into second place, and surprise the other competitors who might not see her coming. It seemed to have worked, she destroyed the 341 to tie her personal best, and many of the others missed their 2^nd attempts. Jen was now back in 2^nd and it was going to come down to the final attempts. A conservative 347lbs. was entered for her third attempt waiting for the rest to decide on their third attempts. After all the third attempts had been entered, I told Jen that she was already in 2^nd and she would have to increase her third attempt to 170kg (the meet is actually run in kilograms) so that if anyone else got their third attempts she would maintain her second place, otherwise she could end up back down in 4^th. She said, “Put in whatever it takes for me to get 2^nd, I feel great”. I told her 170kg would do it and asked if she wanted to know how many pounds that was. She quickly said, “no, it doesn’t matter, I’ll get it”. She went out and made the 170kg look very easy, and sealed the silver medal. When she came off the stage after the lift she gave me a big hug and said, “How much was that?” I told her that it was 375lbs (34 pounds more than her personal best). She then said, “no way, that was pretty easy”. She was stunned because she has never done more than 360lbs. even in training.  

Jennifer had taken the silver medal in the Women’s Powerlifting National Championships. In the process; she had set the American and National Bench Press Records 3 times, deadlifted 34 pounds more than her personal best, and added 55 pounds to her previous best total finishing with 987lbs.  In addition, she also had the second best deadlift in the weight class, not to mention beating a couple of past National Champions. Not bad powerlifting for a “bencher”!  

As usual, Jen gives thanks to all the friends and family who made the trip. Thanks also goes to her sponsors Inzer Advanced Designs and SportPharma for all their continued support.

Special Thanks to Richard Weed and Carol Latta Chromosome Donors

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