AR Athletes at 2018 Rite of Passage Meet
AIR QUALITY UPDATE: As of 8pm on Sunday evening it looks like Monday classes will run as planned. We’ve left the air filters on our HVAC system running and at Open Gym on Sunday the air inside the building was much better than the previous two days. We will, of course, continue to monitor things as Monday and Tuesday progress, and if the AQI takes another a turn for the worse we may need to re-evaluate once again (hopefully not!).
Arena Ready Athletes CRUSH IT at 2018 Rite of Passage Meet
All three of our weightlifting athletes CRUSHED IT this weekend on the competition platform at the 2018 Rite of Passage Meet — a HUGE congratulations to Jeannie, Cassie, and Liz for the incredible performances at their first-ever officially sanctioned weightlifting meet!
Jeannie started the weekend of competition off by going five-for-six on her lifts, snatching 39kg and clean & jerking 51kg for a 90kg total in her first ever competition involving any sort of barbell, weights, or crowds LOL. She even cleaned her final attempt at 53kg easily but the jerk just wasn’t quite there this time. Her 90kg total qualified her for the USAW Masters National Championships puts her JUST ONE KILO shy of the IWF Masters World Championships qualifying total — a mark we are sure she will make, and surpass, should she decide to compete again. Not too shabby for a first-ever competition… way to KILL IT OUT THERE JEANNIE!
I mean, we all knew she was badass AMIRITE? Now lots more people know too.
Next up was Cassie, and as many of you saw on the live feed, and in person at the meet, she basically LIFTED ALL OF THE WEIGHTS by going a perfect six-for-six. Cassie snatched 77kg and clean & jerked 93kg for a HUGE 170kg total in the 59kg bodyweight category. This easily qualified her for the 2019 USAW Senior National Championships, making her the 8th Arena Ready athlete to qualify for a national-level and/or international-level meet. Cassie’s big day was also good enough to win the meet overall (across every lifter and all bodyweight classes) on Sinclair total — a victory which came with a $1,000 prize check awarded to her by 1972 OLYMPIC CHAMPION, two-time Olympian, and former USA Weightlifting National Team Coach, Zygmunt Smalcerz:
Nice work, Cassie! Can I borrow a thousand bucks?
On Sunday, Liz topped off the amazing weekend with one of the gutsiest performances in recent memory. She set post-baby PRs on her way to a five-for-six performance, snatching 60kg and clean & jerking 75kg for a 135kg total. Liz even cleaned 78kg fairly easily on her final attempt but just barely missed the jerk behind — regardless her total was good enough to qualify her for the 2019 IWF Masters World Championships… making Liz officially the 9th Arena Ready athlete to qualify for a national-level and/or international-level meet! Another amazing notch in the competition belt for Liz, one the fiercest competitors around…
Huge props need to be given as well to our fantastic team of experienced weightlifting coaches — Coach Hillary, Coach Kate, and Coach Sarah all did a marvelous job managing our athletes in the warm-up area, keeping their nerves calm, timing the perfect warm-up sequences, and calling clutch attempts on the competition platform. At these meets it’s so awesome to witness how their calm, cool, collected demeanor and vast competition experience makes for a smooth and successful game day for our athletes — even when the surroundings are chaotic and tense. Great job, Coaches!
Lastly, we need to say thank you to all the Arena Ready supporters who braved the crappy air conditions and came out to watch and cheer in person, as well as those who screamed from afar by watching on the live stream. Your support and enthusiasm is a big part of what makes events like these so memorable — somehow no matter where we go we seem to have some of the loudest and proudest cheering sections around!
These photos are missing lots of people (Yami, Brian D, Michelle, Linds B, Kathy, and probably a few others I’m forgetting, GAH!) but they were the closest I could get to a group shot…
Hooray for friends, babies, weightlifting, and GIANT CHECKS!
Since the nasty air put us all out of commission on Friday and Saturday we thought it would be great to start off the week with what we meant to end the week with on Friday —so here we go! A re-post of Friday’s programming but this time it looks like we’ll actually be able to do it — and coincidentally the time domain, loading, movement order, and general stimulus fit really well if you happened to take several days off.
So let’s get back at it and start the week off right!
WOD For 11-19-18:
AMRAP 9 Minutes:
9 Deficit Handstand Push-ups @ 4/2 in
15 Med Ball Cleans @ 20/14 lbs
21 AbMat Sit-ups
-then-
Back Squat:
15 Minutes to Establish a Heavy Triple For Today (Not a 3RM)