SCORESHEET
The setting at Snowbird was as awe-inspiring as I've ever seen. The meet flowed smoothly, great weather & a nice crowd.
Mark Wechter came down from Oregon & cleaned house, setting new state records in the Atlas Stone Press & Farmers walk.
Jeff Loosle, current WFH world record holder(masters 50+), & Mark kept the crowd involved all day long.
We started off with a Heavy Open Stone (20.2lbs) which Mark crushed for 33'10" on less than ideal footing. The mountain terrain made hammer blades un-useable but Jeff still pulled out a 76'7" HH toss. Mark toyed w/ a 70' LWFD but it remained elusive leaving him w/ a pull of 69'4".
Our Farmers bars have 2" handles, preventing the hook grip. This didn't stop Mark from setting his first state record of the day with a time of 11.57 seconds & Jeff w/ a masters record of 14.84 seconds. The Barrel Medley proved more difficult then expected for almost everyone, drops were allowed but the implements couldn't leave the marked course. Mark was the only one without a drop, smoking his way to a time of 24.81 seconds.
We have been pressing our Atlas Stones here in Utah for the last 2 years, some of us want to give the Inverness Stone a go one day. Mark blew up the old record of 3 reps on the 225lbs. stone by drilling out 5! All this after never having pressed Atlas Stones previously & working his way through the lighter stones.
We finished the day with a Challenge event - Husafell Stone Carry . It has no effect on overall placing, just pride & cash. My scale tops out at 350lbs. & this stone reads "limit exceeded".
With the crowd pushing us on & we all stepped up. Almost all of us completed the 100' course and then some, All until Mark got ahold of it & got cranky. 225' later he threw it down to thunderous applause. Guess I'll have to get a larger stone
Thanks to Mark Wechter & all the locals, who came out to the inaugural Utah Highlander & a special thank you to the Snowbird Resort for hosting us.
Here’s looking forward to next year!