RALEIGH – Bladenboro native, Mary Caitlin Campbell, won Best Female Lifter Saturday at the USA Powerlifting North Carolina State Championships at the RDU Crossfit Gym.
Campbell finished second to Maura McCarthy of Raleigh in the Raw Women’s 3-Lift Open event for the 72kg (154 pound) Class but won the Best Female Lifter Award for the entire meet due to a Wilks Formula score of 4.05 compared to McCarthy’s 3.95.
The Wilks Formula is used to measure the strength of a powerlifter compared to powerlifters of different weights and uses a coefficient that normalizes the weight lifted across all body weights. McCarthy had a 7-pound weight advantage on Campbell.
The athletes began Saturday’s competition with squats. Campbell squatted 325 pounds on her second attempt after opening with a 305-pound squat. On her third and final squat she failed on an attempt at 349 pounds.
“I was mad about that one,” said Campbell. “I was confident that I could have lifted 340 pounds. The 349 was too big of a jump.”
The powerlifters get 3 attempts at each lift, and the best one of the three is their total for that lift.
Bench-press was next and Campbell benched 176 and 193 pounds on her first two attempts, but failed at 198 pounds.
The dead-lift concluded the competition. Campbell raised 314 pounds on her first attempt and 335 on her second lift. She closed out the competition with a dead-lift of 353 pounds.
For the three lifts Campbell totaled 871 pounds. That total qualifies her for the USA Powerlifting Nationals in Orlando, FL in October.
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