The Men’s Division of Collegiate powerlifting has historically been dominated by the state of Louisiana. In the past six years, Louisiana Tech has won two team national championships, Louisiana State University has won two, and the University of Louisiana has won two. Prior to other Louisiana schools starting to win in 2007, Louisiana Tech had won the title for as far back as most can remember. Being the proud coach of UL’s Ragin Cajuns, I had kind of hoped it would always be this way. Sure, we’d let an outside state claim third place now and again (maybe even second if we didn’t bring our A-game to Nationals), but to let another state claim first place seemed a bit unlikely considering our state’s history of dominance. Well, my friends, those days are over! The University of Texas brought, quite possibly, the most talented roster in the history of collegiate powerlifting! Would they make mistakes and let it slip through their fingers? Would they be able to step up to the plate when it really counted? Let’s take a look….

116

Texas came out swinging! Longhorn Mario Leos had dropped from 123 and showed up with a 369 squat. Louisiana hit right back though…La Tech freshman, Josue Leon returned fire with 363. Texas went on to out- bench Tech’s Leon 275 to 203 which led to a large subtotal lead for the Longhorns. Both lifters nailed their opening deads, but Tech’s Leon passed on his second so that he could load the winning deadlift on his third attempt. 440 pounds was loaded for Leon’s win and he launched it all the way to the top before getting stuck at lock-out! Texas had their first gold medal, Louisiana Tech had silver, and Ricky Hu of the University of Louisiana chimed in for bronze.

130

Texas wasn’t done yet; they brought the talented Austin Deshane as their hopeful gold-medalist at 130. But Deshane was no match for the heavily-muscled newcomer from San Jose State, James McCabe! McCabe won easily with a 1256 total, leaving Deshane (Texas) and Sidney Belcher (West Point) to battle it out for silver. When the dust had settled, Deshane pulled 2.5 kilos more to take silver on bodyweight (1157 total).

145

Quest Nutrition’s James Vang (University of Georgia) had little trouble dismantling his competitors at 145. Northeastern’s Anthony Grimaldi loaded up a winning deadlift on his third attempt, but the 66-pound increase was just too heavy. Vang took gold with 1416, Grimaldi took silver with 1350, and Texas took ANOTHER medal thanks to Abel Escamilla’s 1322.

163

Ladies and gentleman, I’d like to introduce the greatest lifter in collegiate powerlifting. When he switched over from the APF two years ago, I watched his YouTube videos and boldly predicted that he would bomb out of the 2011 Collegiate Nationals. I was right, he bombed, and my own lifter went on to win the gold medal that year which ultimately led to my team winning first place. Would the new superstar give up and return to the APF? NO! He came back harder, stronger, crisper….and he has dominated ever since! He won the Junior World championships this past year, re-wrote the USAPL record book, and wiped with the floor with all who have challenged since. Ladies and gentlemen: Louisiana Tech’s Mr. Jordan Dunn. The 2013 national meet was another jaw-dropping display. He set the collegiate American squat record with 705, benched 479, and then pulled 556 for a 1741 total and best-lifter honors of the whole meet. John Kaleb Rollins (LSU) secured the silver with 1432 and Mauricio Valdez (University of Texas-San Antonio) took bronze with 1394.

182

This one was a dog fight! The top 6 seeds had almost identical qualifying totals of approximately 1575 pounds! Who would pull it off? The lifter that made the most attempts of course. Pre-meet speculation indicated that Louisiana Tech’s Jacob Wayne Williamson was the strongest contender, but his 4/9 attempts on this day pushed him down to bronze (1598 total). After bronze, the 4th, 5th, and 6th place lifters all tied….and 7th through 10th place were right behind them. A dog fight!!! Who won then? The University of Texas-San Antonio, that’s who. UTSA had two lifters go 9/9 and finish with the same total (1625). Anthony Munoz had to take the silver, however, when teammate Jeff Button pulled a final attempt of 595 to win on bodyweight.

205

Ian Bell is well on his way to winning 4 consecutive collegiate gold medals. This year would be his third. The big news was that he proved that he’s no longer a deadlift specialist. In fact, he squatted an American record of 760 and then posted a MUCH improved bench of 462. He “only” needed a 749 pull to lock in an easy win with a 1973 total. Garrett Bailey (LSU) took second with 1774 and UL’s Brennan Riche claimed the bronze after losing 40 pounds of body weight since placing fourth at 242 last year.

231

Last year, Chris Vickery (Sam Houston State) lost his gold medal to Malcolm Richard on the final deadlift of the session. Apparently this didn’t sit well with Vickery because he came back ROARING this year. He blasted up a huge squat of 804, a powerful bench of 551, and a greatly improved deadlift of 672! His 2028 total was the new American record. Nobody would deny Vickery his gold in 2013! World team member Jon Rivas (Virginia Military Academy) came close and even had the winning deadlift in his hands, but when he couldn’t quite lock it out, his excellent total of 1989 left him with the silver. Texas State’s William Leblanc claimed third place with 1851.

264

This class had three of 2012’s gold medalists going head to head. World team member Kyle Ramsey (UL) won gold at 242 in both 2011 and 2012, but entered this meet injured and was content to earn 4th place points for his team by placing some safe lifts. Scott Dobbins of Texas A&M claimed bronze with 1879 and LSU’s Malcolm Richard (2012 champion of the 220 class) posted a huge 766 deadlift and 2006 total that earned silver. But Texas wasn’t done cleaning up on medals just yet! Legendary Longhorn Preston Turner lit up the scoreboard and amazed us all with an Open American Bench press record of 716 pounds! He easily lifted an opening deadlift of 622 and then scratched on his final attempts (2116 total). It was over. Preston had dominated and Texas had dominated. Louisiana would at last be humbled.

SHW

Ryan Carillo (Texas State) was back for another collegiate nationals and spent much of his weekend conducting interviews for his powerlifting documentary. He’s a genuinely nice guy and I really hoped he’d secure the bronze medal…..but Ryan had a different plan! After posting a 903 squat at the Junior World Championships, Arron Gonzales (Sam Houston State) failed to come up with all three attempts of 804! Then, to everyone’s surprise, the second-seeded lifter (Travis Nichols of LSU) met the same fate. By the time squats were over, it was an open game. Carillo was in 5th after squat, but launched his way back into contention with a huge 617 bench. It all came down to the deadlifts, and on the last deadlift of the entire meet, Carillo successfully pulled for the gold (1890 total!). Stephen King of Northeastern claimed silver with 1884 and Taylor James Lightner (LSU) took bronze with 1785.

The Results

The University of Texas —They came, they dominated. I’d like to tell you that (as a Louisiana coach) I was disappointed, but that would be a lie. This team is so classy and humble that I couldn’t help but cheer for them. We all did. Congratulations Longhorns…you earned it! Louisiana Tech —the bulldogs were every bit as talented as the Longhorns, but were lacking a head coach. Four of Tech’s former head coaches were in attendance (Talton, Cunningham, Cooper, and Chovanec) and there was a lot of talk about finding a long term coach that could bring the dynasty back. One thing is for sure though….they have all the other ingredients already at hand. From top to bottom, Tech is still loaded with talent. They will be VERY tough to beat in 2014! The University of Louisiana —After dominating the field with 63 points in 2011, the Ragin Cajuns dropped to fourth place in 2012 with a roster of mostly underclassmen. Well, those same underclassmen are now sophomores and juniors. This year, they had plenty of 3rd-5th place individuals and that was enough to earn their team third place. Look out though, almost all of them are coming back for another year! Texas State-San Antonio —This team was the sleeper. They weren’t on anybody’s radar, but they should’ve been. Coach Wes Zunker had his boys looking like well-oiled machines. Congratulations to the Roadrunners on a GREAT meet! West Point —Best known for beating La Tech in 5 consecutive years in the 1980’s, this team is rich with history and always competitive. This year, their solid lifting was good for an honorable 5th place.