The first athletic competition Mike ever won was the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Physical Fitness Award in 8th grade at White School in 1972. Encouraged by his favorite teacher, Jim Morby, Mike achieved 100 percentile performances in every event. Now, Mike realizes that this was Crossfit prior to the birth of Crossfit! In high school Mike participated in the wrestling program at Woodruff High School. Mike began his powerlifting career in a local gym at the age of 15 in Peoria, IL. He entered his first competition at the age of 18 in the Mid-state Nine High School Championship, winning first place. That same year he set his first International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) world record (WR) with a 367 lb. bench press in the 148 lb. division. The following year at 19, he won his first National title and broke his previous IPF WR in the bench press. In 1977, he won his first Junior National title in Lincoln, NE and set more new WRs. He then went on to compete in the Senior Nationals in the 148 lb. division and set multiple new WRs qualifying for his first IPF World Competition in Turku, Finland in the fall of 1978, winning and setting more WRs. Mike was named the Peoria Tri-County Top Sports Figure in 1978. In 1982 Mike was nominated by the powerlifting community for the James E. Sullivan Award, the most prestigious amateur athletic award. Continuing his winning streak, Mike won National and World competitions for several consecutive years until 1983 when he decided to take a break from competition. Mike was inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame in 1992. After a 19 year hiatus from the sport, Mike decided to compete again and in 2003 he began training for the Master Nationals in Baton Rouge, LA, where he again set several IPF WRs and won the meet. He followed that win with the IPF World meet in Regina, Sask., Canada where he set more WRs and won. Since 2003, he's won several Master Nationals and IPF World titles, setting multiple new WRs along the way. In May 2007, at the age of 50, Mike decided to go head-to-head with the younger competitors and entered the Open Nationals in St. Louis, MO. He set 6 WRs to beat out the 17 man field. He also won the Master IPF World Bench Press title in Schwedt, Germany in October 2007, setting a WR of 512 lbs. In March 2008, Mike competed in the inaugural USAPL/IPF Arnold Classic powerlifting event, setting a WR squat of 716 lbs. to win the Open and Master division. In May 2008, he won the Master Nationals held in Miami, FL. That qualified him for the USA World Team at the IPF World meet held in October, 2008, in Palm Springs, CA. The results were: 4 gold medals, winning in all categories, squat, bench press, deadlift and total. In May 2009, he again won the Master Nationals held in St. Louis, MO. The results were: WR squat 706, WR bench 531 and WR Total 1843. In this meet Mike decided to weigh in heavy at 205 to compete in the 220 lb. weight class to become the first powerlifter in the history of the sport to establish National and WRs in 5 weight classes. Having never competed in the Pan American meet before, Mike decided to lift in the Open division against the youngest lifters in August 2009. Results were: 4 gold medals and 5 WRs with the most impressive being an 804 lb. squat. This squat was the heaviest in the entire meet, including the super heavyweights and shattered the WR record of 706 that Mike established in May at the Master Nationals by 98 lbs. His WR total of 1955 also shattered the WR total of 1843 that he established in May at the Master Nationals by 112 lbs. He was named Champion of Champions at this competition which included athletes from 18 countries. Over the years Mike has established dozens of IPF WRs, too many to list, in five different weight classes (148, 165, 181, 198 and 220 lbs.). He’s won the Arnold Classic Powerlifting Competition and the Pan American Competition. He's won 18 National and 14 World titles in the following divisions, Teenage, Junior, Senior and Masters. Mike was inducted in the IPF Hall of Fame in December, 2008. Mike’s been training Crossfit for about 2 1/2 years to compete to qualify to be in the top 20 in his age division to compete in the Crossfit World Games to be held in July, 2014. Mike took first place in his region and qualified in 9th place to compete July 22-24, 2014, at the Stub Hub Center in Carson, CA. Mike has found one of his strengths in Crossfit to be handstand pushups. He established a record 330 strict (no kipping) handstand pushups in a 30 minute timeframe. He was told by his coach that to his knowledge, nothing of this magnitude had ever been done in Crossfit. Another recent accomplishment was completing 35 full Olympic back squats with 411 lbs. His biggest challenge in trying to change direction in his athleticism is trying to convert his muscles from 'all things powerlifting' over to Olympic lifting which is completely different, and for Crossfit which requires a massive amount of flexibility, endurance and speed. He is thankfully surprised that his body was able to make the athletic conversion at the level necessary to be competitive. He didn't know whether it would be possible to recreate that competiveness in an entirely new sport and appreciates that his body has cooperated with his minds' vision. He continues to use mobility exercises which he's learned are vital to improving his range of motion, flexibility, balance, etc.