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Tony Gruber:

• Here's my favorite quote from that day, maybe for the year!
  A couple guys thought there would be lots of women there (Oh yea! Chicks dig Powerlifters!). So they were talking back-stage about how girls will be dripping off of them after they see how strong they are (lol!). Another guy mentioned that he brought his girlfriend, and one of them said:
  "Dude! That's like bringing sand to the Beach!"
  These guys were predictably disappointed when they found out the audience was full of high-school boys and other powerlifters!
• There were lots of nationally ranked pros there! About 50 guys competed.
• I got to meet Louie Simmons of WestSide Barbell fame.
• The guy in the blue shirt won 1st place overall with a 715 bench in the 220 weight class - The big check is for $1,000!
• I dropped from 265 to 235 to get in the 242 weight class. Overshot by 7 lbs 'cause the scale at my gym was off - Oops!
• I wore a single-ply bench shirt, but it LOWERED my max by 40 pounds. Bench shirts aren't magic! You have to train with them, and train for them. I learned that the hard way!
• One contestant got into powerlifting to keep her rehab interesting. She benched 100 lbs that day! Better still: The rehab got her out of a wheel chair and into braces and crutches!
• There was no predictable correlation between size and strength! I've known this concept for years theoretically, but it was kind of amazing to see it in action!