Meet Report: Powerlifting on the Plains

by Michele, Nov 22, 2009

Luke Henson stole the show at this meet, calmly and consistently smashing his attempts and hitting some incredible PRs. At only 14 years old and 148 lbs, Luke totaled 837 lbs.

He smoked his opener squat of 303 lbs, and went to 314 on his second. This one was a grinder, but he pushed through it and finished the lift. Luke passed on his third attempt to save strength for his deadlift. He opened with an easy 176 on bench, which looked like just a warm-up. He went up to 203 on his second, but could not lock it out with his left arm at the very top. He tried again on his third but missed. For his deadlifts, Luke went 314, 336, and 347. His third attempt was slower than the first two, but he didn't give up and ended his day with a great pull.

17-year-old Zach Henson, 165, had a rough start to the meet but was still able to put together a solid day with some new PRs and AAU records under his belt. After a questionable depth call on his opener squat of 480, he wasn't able to find his groove that he hits consistently in the gym each week on his second two attempts.

But Zach didn't let it stop him - he entered the Push/Pull so he was still able to compete in bench and deadlift. He opened with an easy 286 on bench, then hit a solid 297 on his second. For his third attempt, Zach tried 308 but missed just short of lockout. On deadlift, he opened with 485 and went up to 507 on his second. He went for 518 on his third but couldn't hang on to it just as the bar passed his knees. At the end of the day, Zach's 297 bench, 507 deadlift, and 804 Push/Pull total were new AAU records.

Powerlifting on the Plains was an AAU sanctioned meet, so the lifters wore single ply gear and walked out their squats.