COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Grace Landry was calm and not worried in the days leading up to her first national collegiate powerlifting competition in late April.

Until the day before she was slated to compete, that is. The Saturday of the 2018 USA Powerlifting Collegiate Nationals at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, things changed.

“For the first few days I was really calm and didn’t worry because I didn’t compete until Sunday, and we got there Wednesday,” Landry said. “Come Saturday, I got really nervous watching my teammates.”

But those same teammates helped calm the Catholic High graduate and LSU freshman down for her competition the next day. Landry finished seventh in the women’s 84-plus kilogram equipped division, hitting personal bests in all three lifts at the meet.

It was her first time lifting in an equipped competition, she said. Equipped lifts, as opposed to “raw” (or un-equipped) lifts, are done wearing a supportive bench shirt, squat/deadlift suits or briefs, and may include knee wraps depending on the rules for the competition. Weight belts, knee sleeves, wrist wraps and special footwear are allowed in both equipped and raw lifts.

“It was my first time competing equipped, and we weren’t exactly sure what my maxes were,” Landry said. “In high school I just relied on my strength.”

She had a personal best squat of 424 pounds, a personal best bench press of 222 pounds and a personal best deadlift of 363 pounds.

The week was a good one for LSU, and for Landry personally.

“I bonded with my teammates a lot,” she said. “It was nice to get to know them.”

She also enjoyed her time in College Station, though most of the time was spent either at competition or in the hotel. The hotel was located in a shopping area with several restaurants so the team didn’t have to go far to eat.

“College Station is beautiful,” she said. “One of my teammates said this is one of the nicest meets they’ve been to. They just remodeled Kyle Field.”

LSU placed seventh in women’s equipped team standings and 15th in the raw stadnings, and was eighth in men’s equipped and seventh in men’s raw team standings.

Individually LSU had one first place finisher, two thirds and a few fifths, Landry said.

Landry said she plans to compete for the LSU powerlifting team again next year and hopes to qualify for nationals at Ohio State University.