Best of the Best in the Midwest Wrap-up

by Al Caslow

First of all, I want to thank a few people and do that FIRST because without these incredible individuals this meet would have been a cluster.....

Thank you soooooo much to Ryan Lynnes, Chris Bangs, Deb Trobaugh and Heather Tillinghast. MY LORD, without these 4 people I would have died from a heart attack. Their incredible generosity, patience and drive to help me almost brought me to tears the night of. They kept me calm, they kept the meet on track, they kept the table organized and they took me in stride (I have the worst temper, EVER, and I couldn't have asked for better people by my side).

Thank you to Carter Craig, Chris Bartley, Kellen, Ryan Moody, Brad Johnson, Paul Mies, Dave Damminga and his partner from Minnesota, the two highschool studs that showed up and asked if they could help and little did they know what "loading" meant, Matt Trobaugh, Greg Tillinghast for his patience as Heather sat at the table from 9am to 8pm.... My wife, Shanna Lynnes, Missy Frankl, Mandy Bennet, Nick Falcon.

A special thanks to Mike And Beverly McDaniel, Gregg Damminga and Rick Hussey. Gregg, Beverly and Mike were incredible. Besides their judging, which was TOP NOTCH, they actually constantly catered to me instead of me confirming if all was good through out. Just amazing people who did this for the love of the sport and support.

My coach, Rick Hussey, he donated a monolift, bench, bars, kilo plates, men and his amazing energy and love for the sport and team. This man is forever in my heart owed to.

Thank you to my sponsors: EliteFTS, APT Pro Wrist Straps, Spud Inc. and Overkill Strength.

I'm missing a crap load of people I bet and I apologize, but please know that I am grateful for YOU and your generous ability to provide help.

I have to personally thank the bench only individuals for being patient with the mix up on flights. Not one complaint, not one fuzz. When you panic about a mix up and then the response is GOOD, you appreciate the patience people are willing to give you.

This meet, turned into a whole lot more than I could have ever expected. We had 63 total lifters at the end signed up. I had rented and reserved a venue with double rooms with a door in between to seperate the warm-up area to the platform. I asked for 100 total chairs and at the end of bench, it was standing room only with people crowding the walls two deep. As I walked by the walls to apologize for the lack of room, the response was "no problem, this is awesome Al." This meant a lot, because through out the day as I ran around like a chipmunk getting chased by a dog I felt nothing but panic.

As for the event itself. I hope people and lifters were overall happy. We had some software issues at first but quickly got fixed, we had a loading mishap but was rectified. We had plenty of equipment and plenty of help all around. We had some amazing lifters show up and some amazing lifters who have created a name for themselves.

I saw some teens who came in and OUT OF nowhere created a show: Logan Lacy whose 21 just rocked the show, Thomas Jacobs came out of nowhere and his lifting was for his age was incredibly technical and strong. A 17 year phenom in Zack Henson and Gabe Falcon, a big boy in AJ Hesser with some pure brute strength.

The Masters didn't play either, talk about strong. Mike Taylor and Jim Sorrell looking up records. SOS's very own John Falcon with 110lb PR, 3 full power meet only and going over 2000.

The benchers... Though the lifting was not scored, just the way they handle these weights is amazing in itself. Rob Luyando was handling 964+ incredibly well, and just barely short of completing them. WATCH OUT. Jake Prazak who I admit have never heard off, opened up with 859 and WHOA, took down and up like he had no shirt on, just shy of locking it out. Roger Ryan, what the hell? 54 years old handling 800+.... redefining the 50's and another breaking the age group record in Stanley Tomazkawiecs. Then at 21 years old, Dave Nelson at a light 198 taking 650+ for rides..

OH, and the ladies, Rita Carlson, at a young 57 took 3 records....

Then of course the freakz, and we had some. Despite some injuries and/or mishaps holy cow was it fun to watch. Our Last flight began with openers of 850+ all the way to 1070. People stood on chairs the whole time and tons of flashes. These guys did not disappoint, congrats to Logan Lacy, Thomas Jacobs and a fellow competitor of mine Thomas Krawiec, these guys came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They also got to see some raw lifting, Matt Brown took 804 on the deadlift for a ride, despite a gash on his hand. Watch out for Barzeen, AAPF totaling 2040 and new to the sport.

Im a fan of this sport as much as I am a competitor. I loved watching this and loved having the lifters and people here in town. Though I made 0 from this as I spent my last dimes feeding my team at Denny's saturday at midnight, I not once thought about it. Just bringing everyone here and giving me a show was worth it, to say the least.

I could talk about this forever, I just love this sport and the people/lifters are the reason. I have been involved with collegiate sports at a national level, professional sports and by far, for some reason, powerlifting just comes with so much more in terms of quality. The camaraderie  , immediate connection and love for the sport is its ticket.

We're hoping to make this an annual event. I hated that it was the same day as the Lexen Pro/am. Just bad timing, a terrible coincidence. My plan is to get with Dan Dague and discuss this annual meet thing and hopefully come to a conclusion of some sort to get all of us together. I can only imagine what his and this meet together would have looked like. If it doesn't happen, it definitely won't be from disregard, I respect and enjoy the friendship with Danny and the lexen guys, so hopefully something is figured out. If not, well then at least there is two great events for lifters to participate in.

Congratulations to everyone, thank you to everyone and hope to see everyone again soon.

camaraderie

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