Meet Recap - Kaelli Gehrung, USAPL Maine State Championship 3/23/2024

Eric Andrews
Apr 8, 2024
6 min read

Weigh-In, Goals and Performance

This is Kaelli and I’s second meet together and her best performance yet! Coming off a very solid meet in November of 2023, albeit not the day we had in mind, we had our sights set very high for this one. Just before the meet in November, Kaelli came down with the flu the week before the meet and training was just a bit off specifically for bench. So we wanted to come in and rectify that first and foremost at this meet. However, Kaelli did have a pretty good meet overall there with a 15kg total PR, but we knew more would be in the tank. Training was going exceptionally well especially on the bench press, hitting multiple PRs in training, so we had a lot to put on the platform this time around.

Kaelli weighed in at 68.6kg, just over the 67.5kg weight class & would be competing as a light 75kg lifter. I always encourage people to compete where they feel confident and the strongest, regardless of weight class. There is certainly a time and place for cutting or bulking into the correct class, or doing a water or gut cut or whatever you have in mind. But in most cases if you are not hitting national records, or qualifying for a bigger meet, the larger, more important goal is to increase your total, improve your coefficient of choice, and most importantly have fun. I am excited to say Kaelli achieved all three at this meet, hitting personal records on all three lifts, improving her DOTS, and of course, having a great time and smiling through the whole day.

Squat

In training, Kaelli hit a PR of 310 about 4 weeks out and in general training was going well. We had an idea of at least 142.5kg for the “3 plate” squat milestone. We had a couple of top end ideas for the day but we knew we wanted to be a little more conservative here, go 3/3 and save some energy for the bench. We opened at 132.5kg and it moved great - always great to see the opener move so well, good start to the day and building that confidence is critical. Making a 7.5kg jump to 140kg to give us a good idea of where her top end strength could be for the third attempt. This only being 2 lbs underneath her best in training, I was definitely excited to see how this tapered and showed up at the meet and…it certainly did. This moved like an RPE7 at most. We took a 5kg jump to 145kg, exceeding the goal for the day and Kaelli smoked it. In all honesty, we probably had another 5kg on the day looking back at how well this squat moved. The taper did the dang thing here on squats, she was 3/3 with a 7.5kg PR under her belt looking very solid for a stand-out day. Interestingly, we did the same jumps here, 7.5kg on the second and 5kg on the third as her last meet, the strategy has yet to fail us yet!

Bench

Our favorite lift, the bench press. Earlier I mentioned that we were a bit disappointed with her bench performance at the Harvest Moon meet in November. At that meet she hit a 87.5kg press and missed 92.5kg. Coming off of that, we had a mini-re-peak in December which capped off the year with a 215lb bench PR and unlocked a new training micro-cycle for Kaelli. During our “FAFO” month of tweaking, we figured out that having a good bit of pre-fatigue on her primary bench day was a key to unlocking a huge single. On the day she hit this PR, the plan was to just go for it... what ended up happening was she was warming up and didn’t quite feel fully ready, so we did some more warm-ups but at what most would consider, an extremely high intensity. Kaelli hit 200x3 before the top set and I was kind of blown away. We incorporated this thought process into the following prep blocks and hit some pretty crazy rep PRs along the way. Using 3x3 and 3x2 warmups at 85-90% of max and then hitting a “fatigue” single was pushing massive progress. Kaelli ended prep with a 100kg bench press about 4 weeks out that absolutely moved. We were very ready for the platform and another milestone lift.

Kaelli opened up on the bench at 92.5kg, the weight she missed at the prior meet on her third attempt and smoked it. This is a weight she has hit for reps and we were confident on this selection. Plan was in motion so we jumped 5kg to 97.5kg This attempt was crucial to determine if the 102.5kg was ready to show up. Ended up smoking this weight, confident that this could be hit for reps in training. However the start and press commands we did notice were a bit long, but the attempt moved incredibly well so we stuck to the plan with another 5kg jump to our goal weight. With 226lbs loaded on the bar, Kaelli was locked in for her third attempt. When we started working together this was our first goal and to have it loaded in a meet was very cool.

She goes out there, gets set up, everything looks perfect.

Un-rack is solid, gets the start command, solid pause, little sticking point but really doesn’t slow down that much, locks it out and gets the rack command.

At this point I am pumped - she did it! But then we look up and see 1-2 white to red lights. During the sticking point her butt came off the bench. Very unfortunate to see but those are the rules! We haven’t seen this happen in training in a very long time so this was definitely unexpected. Rewatching the attempt I can see her left knee cave in a bit and I think this is what drove her hips up just a bit. No excuses to be made here - just need to get stronger and pause longer! Kaelli will be back for this weight in no time, I am sure of that.

Deadlift

Even missing the 3rd bench, Kaelli did not miss a beat. She was stoked that she could attempt it and knows it’s going to be there next time and more. She was ready to turn her attention to deadlifts and finish the day strong. I feel like a broken record at this point but…training was also going well for deadlift! Kaelli hit a huge double PR at 310 in January that she had to fight for, the hardest I’ve seen her work for a lift ever. I think it’s important to push yourself in training once in a while when appropriate to learn how to work through difficult lifts and to mentally challenge yourself as well. Going into attempt selection, missing the last bench put us in a tough spot for our final goal of the day which was 400 DOTS. We knew we would have a pretty substantial DOTS improvement regardless, but again hitting some milestone lifts was on the agenda for the day. Doing some calculations, Kaelli would have needed a 150kg pull to lock in the 400 DOTS PR and truthfully we both knew that was a bit of a reach for the day. We went in with the goal to finish 8/9 and hit a PR, whatever was there at the end of the day.

First attempt at 132.5kg moved great, even with me forgetting baby powder. To try and get the absolute most out of the final pull, we made a 10kg jump on her second attempt to 142.5kg to match her current PR. A bit shaky but moved well enough. I think the low back & general fatigue was kicking in at this point and we elected to go up just 2.5kg for 145kg on the third attempt. I think this was the right call, breaking it off the floor and getting it to her knees with no trouble but then seeing the same grind from her training double PR but working through it and locking out strong. I strongly believe that working through that double in training prepared her to fight for this deadlift a bit as well. We could have gambled for another 2.5kg at a 50/50 chance but my favorite thing people say about meet day calls, “it’s better to secure a 2.5kg PR than to lose 5kg on your total”.

Closing Thoughts & The Future

Closing out the day, Kaelli walked away with PRs on all three lifts, a total of 387.5kg with a 20kg PR, a DOTS PR of 26 points with 396, and overall a great day of lifting. The last few months of training for Kaelli have been extremely productive and taught us a lot about working together, what works and what doesn’t, and the meet showed us what we need to continue to focus on. We’ll be going into a bit of a short off-season to mainly try on sumo deadlift for the future as well as work on getting down to the 67.5kg weight class more comfortably and consistently. Kaelli is a hard worker in and out of the gym and I am very excited to see the progress we’ll continue to make. I am confident that with continued focus on bench press, along with improvements to squat and deadlift, she will be a name to know on the bigger stages soon. As always, excited to see what the future holds for Kaelli and High Tide ~ #TheRisingTide