Here are our lifters' results from the Arnold and a few comments.

 Jenny Sawyer lifted first on Saturday. She weighed in at just under 63 kgs. (about 139 lbs.) She made her opening attempt of 61, then made 64, then missed 66. IN the c&j, her last warm-up was hard, so we opened a little lower than we originally intended at 77. She made it, then took 80. She racked it and could not stand. She then took it again and made a nice recovery and stood up and jerked it.

 

 Kierstyn Davis and Kari Davis lifted next. Kierstyn had not made weight at 63, so weighed about 63.2. At national meets if you don't make weight you are out of the meet. Here at the Arnold you could just move up.  Kierstyn lifted much better than she had in training. She made 51, then made 54, then missed a PR 56. She made 63, 66, then cleaned 69 and missed the jerk. The 69 was a PR.

 

 Kari was next. She opened with 72 and it was up very strong and lost behind after a second or two. She repeated and made it solidly. She then took 76 for a PR and it was not quite there. I really wanted that lift. At the Jrs. 5-8 kgs. and making 3 lifts instead of 5 may mean 2-4 places.   In the c&J, she opened with a solid 90. Just after she made 90, Arnold came through the back door. He walked to the platform just after Kari got done with her lift. I told her to shake his hand, which she did. He then walked out to the front of the platform.

 

 Megan and Mark asked Kari to do another lift while Arnold and his entourage of security and the other press people looked on. They lowered the bar to 55 kgs. and Kari went ahead and lifted it with Arnold, et al. looking on. Before she lifted it, I said, "Don't miss it." She didn't.  Then, Arnold came on the platform and handed out some awards and spoke for a few minutes. I asked Kari if she wanted to stay out in front within about 5 feet of Arnold or come backstage to rest, as she had 2 more attempts to go. She said, "I am staying out here by Arnold."

 

 After Arnold got through, he came backstage and shook some hands and signed some autographs. Jenny had a picture of her and Arnold, with Arnold's arm around her, and he signed it   "To Jenny     Arnold Schwarzenegger".

 

 After all of that was done, I had Kari take a warm-up backstage with 55. It had been 10 minutes plus since she lifted. She needed 95 to qualify for the Senior National Championships in Chicago in May.  That is what we took.

 The bar was loaded to 95. That is just under 210 lbs. She racked it, almost fell backwards, balanced, and stood. She then jerked it and made it 2-1. It was very close to press out. So, she is qualified for the senior Nationals.

 

 Nathan and Colton Sewell lifted later. Nathan has been lifting very well. He is 8. He weighed in at 28.5 kgs., which is about 62+ lbs. He made 19, 22, then missed 24 kgs. The 24 was a PR. In the c&j, he made 27, 30, then made a PR of 33. Very nice lifting for him.

 

 Colton was a little shaky with his last warm-up. So, we opened with 31 and it was easy. He then made 34 solidly. Then, he was close with 37, a PR. It was just in front.  In the clean and jerk, he made 46, then missed the clean with 50, then made 50.

 

 All in all, a pretty successful meet. All did more than in Ind. last month except Nathan. and he equaled his total. Colt still has more in him. Kierstyn has to make weight, and Jenny needs one more kg. to qualify for Senior Nationals. She has maybe 5 more weeks to make it. Jenny improved by 12 kgs. from a few weeks earlier.

 

 If you go to  www.goheavy.com   and go to Olympic forums, if you look down to a post from Jim X webmaster after a post from me about Arnold being there yesterday, you can click on it and it has a link to  youtube  where the video and audio of Arnold can be seen, with Kari a few feet away.

 

 We travel to Merrillville, Ind. this weekend for the National Jrs. Kierstyn and Jenny and Kari will lift.

 

 All of the kids will be lifting in the national School Age Championships in late June in Springfield, MO. I expect Jenny and Kari to win and be named to the International team lifting in the Pan American 13-15 Championships in Rampeche, Mexico, in August. I will be disappointed if Kari and Jenny are not the number ONE and TWO (1 & 2) ranked girls on the team. That is our main goal over the next 3 months or so. - Marty