By Tim Miguel, Cal Athletic Communications
Alejandro Crosthwaite said a little prayer before he hit the bench press in the weight room at Cal’s Pro Day at Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium on Tuesday. That’s the only reason he can think of for why he had such a memorable performance with the exhibition.
In front of numerous NFL scouts and former Cal teammates and coaches, Crosthwaite completed a personal-best 27 reps at 225 pounds, surpassing his previous top mark of 23 reps. In comparison to how offensive linemen faired at the 2015 NFL Combine, 27 reps would have tied Crosthwaite for 12th on the leaderboard.
“The bench went really well,” Crosthwaite said. “I could only get to 22 working out on my own, so getting 27 today was crazy. I’m really happy and excited about that. My goal was 25, and my max that I ever got at Cal was 23. I usually start getting excited when I hit 20. Today I lost count, and I remember I started yelling ‘What number am I at? What number am I at?’ But nobody would tell me. So I just kept going one by one, and it ended up being 27.”
The personal-best mark was the highlight of the event for Cal’s former offensive lineman. Unfortunately, his day ended after the bench press. He was unable to perform in the other drills because of an injury he suffered while training three weeks ago. He arrived at the stadium today expecting to participate in all of the on-field drills, but the NFL scouts told him not to because they didn’t want him to aggravate the injury.
Despite not being able to be an active participant on the field, Crosthwaite said he still felt lucky to have the experience to be at Pro Day at his alma mater.
“I’m grateful, even though I didn’t get to do everything that I wanted to,” Crosthwaite said. “Just being out there was a blessing. I was happy to be out there and take it all in at Pro Day at a Division I school.”
It will take about two to three weeks until Crosthwaite is back to 100 percent. His agent is working on getting him tryouts with NFL teams next month to showcase his skills once again when he’s fully healthy.
In the meantime, Crosthwaite said he is training in San Diego at Fitness Quest 10, a facility that often has current and former members of the San Diego Chargers training there. He has also been swimming frequently on his own for extra cardio work.
Despite the limited activity, Crosthwaite left Kabam Field at California Memorial Stadium on Tuesday with a personal-best mark and his head held high.
“I just loved being able to step out of the north tunnel one more time for a gameday-like experience,” Crosthwaite said. “Even though I couldn’t do anything on the field itself but sit on the bench, it was still cool to be out here one last time.”
