The highlight of the final day of the USA Weightlifting National Championships was the competition for the final two Olympic spots. Sarah Robles had been in place for an Olympic spot based on her 2015 World Championship performance and that held up and qualified her for the Olympics. The second spot had belonged to Mattie Rogers with Morghan King right behind her in the quest to qualifying. King’s 170kg total from the world championships was 5kg too low to pass Rogers. She reached a combined 175kg after an 80kg snatch and a 95kg clean and jerk on her first attempt to move into Olympic qualifying position. Rogers had a chance to pass her and Robles by completing a 141kg clean and jerk on her final attempt but couldn’t complete it and her 238kg total was not enough to beat either for the Olympic spot. King added to her total as well on her final attempt with an 100kg clean and jerk for a final score of 180kg. That score was the best by any of the three American Olympic qualifiers over the last year.
King obviously won the national championship pretty easily with that score and Rogers did as well. Robles didn’t complete any of her three snatch attempts at 118kg so despite a competition best 150kg clean and jerk the national championship went to Marissa Klingseis with a 257kg total. Holley Mangold was in second with a 100kg snatch but missed on all three of her clean and jerk attempts so second place ended up going to Vanessa Frost with only a 211kg total. It was a nice situation for Frost who would have finished off the medal stand if Mangold and Robles had completed both lifts.
Interesting stories developed in both the 53kg and 63kg divisions. In the 63kg division Mary Peck scored a big 93kg in the snatch to open up a seven point margin over Cecily Basques‘ score from Saturday and then locked up the national championship when she lifted 108kg on her first clean and jerk lift. She eventually upped her total to 208kg to win by 10kg. In the 53kg division Cortney Bachelor kicked things off with an 86kg snatch and Melanie Roach threw herself into the mix with a 75kg snatch. Caitlin Hogan’s 77kg score from Friday was right in contention. Batchelor tried three times to hit 105kg in the clean and jerk but was unsuccessful each time and that left Roach to try and catch Hogan. She couldn’t complete anything higher than 98kg and finished nine back of Hogan’s winning total of 182kg.
Jenny Arthur, already qualified for the Olympics, scored a 239kg total in the 75kg division with Jessica Phillips in second with a 215kg total. In the 58kg division Jessica Lucero won the competition by 12kg after posting a 208kg total.
On the men’s side competition for the eight spots to go the Pan American Championships and stay in contention for Olympic spots was fierce. In the 69kg division Alex Lee missed his final attempt in both lifts but a total of 312kg easily won him the national championship. It wasn’t enough to top his 316kg total at the world championships but that score was also high enough to win him a spot in the Pan American Championships. Caleb Williams ended up finishing second with his 295kg score from Friday.
Good competition in the 77kg division had Angelo Bianco eliminated from the running after he failed to complete 145kg or two attempts at 148kg in the snatch. Bianco had been in the top 10 but third in his weight class going into this competition so he needed to improve his score to get into a Pan American spot. That left Travis Cooper and Leonardo Hernandez competing for the top spots. Both posted 145kg snatches and opened up with 175kg clean and jerks. Separation finally occurred when Cooper completed and Hernandez missed on their attempts at 181kg. Hernandez tried to get back in front with a 183kg attempt but failed as Cooper won the national championship. Neither improved on their scores from the world championship but that was more damaging for Hernandez who was passed and fell out of the top eight and missed out on a chance to move on to the Pan American Championships.
At 85kg both James Tatum and Anthony Pomponio entered in position to reach the Pan American Championships and Tatum had the edge, 156kg to 150kg, after the snatch. Tatum got in front on the clean and jerk as well and an attempt by Pomponio to pass him on his final attempt was unsuccessful as Tatum won the national championship with a 341kg total. Neither improved their previous scores and that was just fine for Tatum who stayed in the top eight while Pomponio fell out of the top eight and didn’t qualify to go to the Pan American Championships. Had Pomponio completed his final lift of the day, a 187kg clean and jerk attempt, he would have jumped into the top eight.
The best competition of the day was in the 94kg division. Kendrick Farris and Colin Burns were second and third in the rankings coming into the national championships while Norik Vardanian, a former Armenian Olympian, wasn’t in those rankings but had a higher qualifying score than either of them. Vardanian led after the snatch lifts by 4kg. All three completed their first clean and jerks but Burns quickly ran into trouble as he couldn’t complete 202kg and finished third with Vardanian having already passed his previous best and eliminating him from Pan American Championships contention. Farris stepped up big time on his final lift posting a 209kg score to win the national championship. Vardanian and Farris have the top two scores regardless of weight class, so this was a significant win for Farris.
105kg also featured great competition as Wesley Kitts opened with a 170kg snatch and Donovan Ford and D’Angelo Osorio both in contention after 162kg scores. Totals around 368kg would get them into contention for the Pan American team and Kitts more or less locked up a spot after opening with a 200kg clean and jerk. That score would also prove to be enough to win a national title combined with his strong snatch mark. Ford and Osorio ended up competing for a score high enough to make the Pan American team and both attempted a 206kg clean and jerk to wrap things up. Ford made his and made the team in the final spot while Osorio finished third.
Finally in the +105kg division Caine Wilkes had already posted a really good mark at the world championship and easily won the national championship after his best competition, Cameron Swart, failed to post a score higher than 160kg in the snatch and did not take part in the clean and jerk competition. Wilkes went on to post a total of 404kg and finished a whopping 48kg in front of second place TJ Greenstone. Wilkes will be part of the Pan American team.
The eight men competing on the Pan American team will compete in Colombia on June 5th. That will be a team based competition with the top seven countries earning one berth, and one berth only, in the Olympics. Who that berth belongs to will be determined by whomever has the best score relative to average finishes in their weight class. Right now that honor belongs to Farris but as we saw this weekend he’ll face stiff competition from Vardanian in his own weight class and Lee as the other real contender.
Previous USA Weightlifting National Championship Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update