It was a good day for me this past Saturday, June 19 at the Jackson Highlander. Steve McCracken hosted a wonderful event and I look forward to his next.

I came in 1st place in the middle weight division (201-250 lbs.). Most important to me was coming away un-injured and that fact that I reach the goals I had set forth for myself. I still have a lot of room to improve on events and I look forward to training and making myself better.

The day started off with the 22 lbs. Braemar stone, a standing shot putt like event. My first throw was 28′, followed by a personal best of 30′ 11″. This event and a couple others, both weights-for-distance events, were my first ever official competition events so anything I did would be a PR.

In the 56 lbs. weight for distance, I had a best throw of 28′ 11″. With the 28 lbs. weight I threw for 56′ 11″. I need to work on my spins and footwork. You will see in the video how I get off balance a bit. Once this improves, I will throw much further.

The fourth event for the day was the 56 lbs. weight-for-height, a favorite of mine since I’m good at it. My goal was 15′ which I had just missed in my last competition at the Western New York Highlander. I started my throws at the 12′ mark just to make sure, in future events I will now start at the 13′ mark. I clear 12, 13, 14 and then 15 feet all on my first throws. 14 feet gave me the win but I wanted more and since I don’t have a crossbar to throw over at the gym, this made for some excellent practice. My first attempt at 16′ was well short, but my second easily had the height. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough arc on the throw to carry it over the bar. My third attempt was again close, but was not to go over. 16′ will happen, I just need to get a little stronger and put in the time.

We then progressed into the strongman events with the farmers walk being up first. Weight was 195 lbs. per hand for 50 ft. down and back. A light weight that would cause a sprint to the finish. I finished 0.1 seconds behind first place winner, Brian Worden. Now that I have farmer walk handles to train on, I won’t let this happen again.

Next up was the 200 lbs. Axle Clean and Press. It was a clean to your chest once and then press away event. Overhead pressing is not my strength, but I managed 9 reps in the 60 seconds. I committed a technical error and didn’t get my 10th rep in before time expired. I ended up tying for 2nd in this event.

Our next to last event was the ~250 lbs. Husafelt stone carry. The course was shortened from a 50 ft. down and back to just 50 ft. This was going to be an even faster sprint. Myself and Brian Worden tie for first at 5.2 seconds.

The last event is a crowd favorite, the caber. The caber this day was 16 feet in length and about 90 lbs. or so. My first throw was pretty, it looked like a caber throw for distance, but I still managed a 12:00 turn. My next 2 throws were also 12:00 turns for a perfect 3 for 3 on the day with the caber.

A BIG thanks to Steve and his wife who took score throughout the day.

Here is a video of most of my events for the day: