By Gabe Bloomer
I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Pinnacle High School. I have been lifting weights for three years and have been a powerlifter for one year. This is my story.
It all started during my freshman year when I was put into a weight training class at school. I was probably the weakest there and also the heaviest. Our PE coach, Coach Dye, signed us all up for a powerlifting meet at TougHer during the winter. I believe I ended with a 220lb squat, 150lb bench press and 250lb deadlift for a 620lb total.
Fast forward to sophomore year: I had really started to hit the weights. Toward the end of the summer, I got into it and didn’t look back. Although I hadn’t been in a weight training class in my sophomore year, I was still lifting in my garage. Coach Dye signed up a handful of kids for the TougHer competition in January as well. I believe I ended with a 315lb squat, 230lb bench press and a 375lb deadlift for a 920lb total, 300lbs over my total the year before. This meet is what really sparked the flame for me. I trained hard until December of 2020, my junior year, and decided to compete in a federated event.
March of 2021 came fast and that was my first time lifting in a federated meet. This meet was the USPA Drug Tested Utah State Championship. I was in the 16-17 year old division, 110kg weight class and competing in the raw full power event. I ended up 6/9 on my lifts, missing the last one of each. This meet landed me a 180kg/396.8lb squat, 122.5kg/270lb bench press, and a 197.5kg/435.4lb deadlift for a total of 500kg/1,102.3lbs; all four of them were new state records. My DOTS score for that meet was 305. (DOTS is the way powerlifting is scored for strength to bodyweight; the higher, the better.)
A summer full of injuries and disruptions didn’t stop me from keeping my focus to getting back on the platform. When the meet on Dec. 4 became available for registration, I jumped right on it. This meet was the APF Utah Winter Classic. I was in the 16-17 year old division, 100kg weight class and competing in the AAPF (drug tested), doing the classic raw full power event. This meet, I went 8/9, only missing my third squat attempt. I finished with a 197.5kg/434.5lb squat, 135kg/297.6lb bench press, 212.5kg/468.5lb deadlift, and a 545kg/1,201.5lb total. All four were new state records, giving me eight in total. My DOTS score jumped to 340, which is 35 points higher than previously.
