2004 June - Strongest in the West - Dave Ostlund

[David Ostlund]

Thanks for the support guys. Here is my account of what happened on Saturday:

This contest was a blast and definitely had more competition than I was expecting. Some of the guys in the NW area are really good. Dave Alexander, who decides to compete once every two years or so, was also really impressive. These were the five events contested:

1. 265 Axle C&P (clean every rep)

2. 465 Axle Deadlift (no straps allowed)

3. Keg carry and sled drag medley

4. Arm over Arm Pull (Hummer H1 uphill)

5. Atlas Stones

1. In training I had been consistentley doing about 3 reps with this weight. I knew I needed more at the contest. I ended up getting 4 reps. The first two I power cleaned with a double overhand grip and the second two I used a mixed grip (Karlsen) clean. All four reps were split jerked. 4 was only enough to tie me for third place on this. Reggie did 6 using a continental, Aaron did 5, and Dave Alexander also got 4. I have never seen anyone play with an axle like Alexander did. He pretty much reverse curl/upright rowed his cleans. He has not done any event training in two years and never practices standing overhead work. He went on to strict press 4 reps to the judges satisfaction. He did about 3 or 4 more full C&P's that were not counted. Freak.

2. The deadlift was originally supposed to be 500 for heavies but was lowered just because. I had been shooting for double digits and now I did not know what a good mark would be. Here is the breakdown: Mark, as a pro lightweight competing as a heavy, did 15 reps to win, Rocco and Dave Alexander tied w/14, and Aaron and I both did 13. I was less than pleased at this point with how my performance was going. I was placed 5th out of 9 people and really felt backed into a corner at this point.

After this event, Jon Anderson and Jesse Marunde did a log lifting competition/demonstration for max weight. Jon didn't want to aggravate his elbow and stopped after making an easy 330. Jesse went on to do 360 and 370. Both of these looked incredibly easy. I have never seen anyone make a 370 log look like such a toy.

3. Keg carry and sled drag has always been good for me. I knew I needed to flat out win this event to get back into it. The kegs were just water kegs and were very light. The sled was a bit heavier but very managable. I ended placing first by about 4 seconds.

4. The heavies used a Hummer up an incline for this event. The other weight classes had been using Corey's Land Rover and it looked very light. After watching the first few guys go on the Hummer I knew it would be a heavy pull. I ended taking first by pulling it 40' with the 2nd place guy going around 30'. Jesse Marunde and Corey St. Clair then went at it with neither finishing the 50' course in the one minute limit. Corey went about 46' and Jesse went 47'.

5. With two event wins in a row I had a four point lead but I still knew I should not let up. Of the nine guys, only two of us finished the stones. Reggie was very fast getting all five in around 28 seconds. The boxes started at 72" and went down to around 48". Stones ranged from 245 to 360. I went at it a little conservatively just to make sure I didn't have a stone fall off at the beginning as this was about the only thing that could have derailed me at this point. I ended up getting five in 26 seconds. Marunde then did all five in 23 or 24 secs. It should also be noted that Jesse had a huge bobble on the first stone and still posted that fast time.

I ended up winning by 5 points. Reggie, Rocco, Aaron, Mark, Dave, and the rest of the heavies were all very tough to compete against. I'm looking forward to doing big tony's contest as a pro this August.

Jeff and I were also shocked as to how many good lightweights there were. Jeff barely missed a top 4 spot.