On Saturday, the Roswell High powerlifting teams hosted a meet that included five schools.
A powerlifting meet has lifters doing three separate lifts: squat, bench and deadlift. Each wrestler does each lift three times, with the weight of the lift increasing, decreasing or staying the same depending on whether their previous lift was successful. Multiple factors determine a successful lift, such as posture and control of the bar.
Boys and girls are split up, with each athlete put into a weight class. The winners of the weight class is determined by the highest weight each lifter was able to successfully lift in deadlifts, bench and squat being combined. The five schools in attendance at the meet were Roswell High, Goddard, New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI), Portales and Robertson, a school from Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Roswell had 19 athletes competing, with 16 boys and three girls. For the boys, they had six of them coming in first place: Melique De Leon in the 123 weight class (WC) with a total weight of 800, Nathaniel Lujan in the 132 WC with a total weight of 945, Martin Gamez in the 181 WC with a total weight of 1,240, Ethan Coats in the 242 WC with a total weight of 1,085, Daniel Borrego in the 275 WC with a total weight of 1,385 and Chevy Wyatt in the Super Heavy Weight class (SHWC) with a total weight of 1,275.
For their three girls, Lilianna Martinez finished in second in the 123 WC with a total weight of 315, Katie Brooks finished third in the 132 WC with a total weight of 500 and Mia Maciel came in fourth in the 132 WC with a total weight of 365.
Roswell head coach Aaron Payne has liked what he has seen from his team throughout the season. He makes sure to have everyone in his team lift throughout the season, so he interchanges who lifts for every meet, and he has seen growth in the amount of weight he has seen each lifter has lifted from the start of the season. He believes that they are in a great spot, and expects to qualify 8-10 lifters to state.
Goddard had 17 lifters competing, with there being 13 boys and four girls. Goddard had two lifters finish first, with Taylen Payne in the 165 WC with a total weight of 1,165, and Braulio Molina in the 308 weight class with a total weight of 560. Other top placers were Eduardo Munoz coming in second in the 198 WC with a total weight of 1,000, and Julian Eaker also finishing second in the 242 weight class with a total weight of 1,015.
For the girls, they had one person finish in first, with it being Vannesa Martinez in the 259 WC with a total weight of 625. The other three girl lifters all came in second, with them being Aubrielle Aldana in the 114 WC with a total weight of 400, Vasanti Sosa in the 181 WC with a total weight of 640 and Nataly Flores in the 198 WC with a total weight of 505.
For Goddard head coach Cade Manzanares, this is the first time he has been a head coach for a sport, and it has been a dream come true. He has loved what he has seen from his team, saying that there has been a lot of growth on the team, and the team has bought in and continues to grind. Manzanares hopes that he can grow the team while helping the lifters prepare for the other sports they participate in.
NMMI had nine lifters, with six boys and three girls. They had two boys finish at the top of their weight classes, Kevin Cheng in the 148 WC with a total weight of 1,035, and William Seifert in the 220 WC with a total weight of 1,240. For the girls, Sofia Birdsong finished in first place in the 132 WC with a total weight of 615, Amarina Rai came in second in the 105 WC with a total weight of 365 and Allison Christensen-Adajar ended up third in the 114 WC with a total weight of 355.
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