Sergio Martinez traveled to Abilene’s Expo Center on March 27 and returned to Laredo as a state champion.
Martinez, a junior at Martin who’s coached by Mark Duron, won a state championship as a super heavyweight in the unequipped division.
He totaled 1,570 pounds with a 620-pound squat, 385-pound bench and 565-pound deadlift. Martinez was 40 total pounds ahead of any other powerlifter.
The state championship is an exclamation mark on an impressive junior campaign for Martinez, who was the Region 5 champion as a super heavyweight in the unequipped division a few weeks ago with a total of 1,550 pounds.
To compete in unequipped, lifters are limited to wearing just knee sleeves, wrist wraps, a belt and a spandex singlet. The state champion of the unequipped division can almost be seen as the true state champion, given the amount of competition in the field.
Martinez joins the ranks of recent Laredo state champions in powerlifting, such as United South’s Jonathan Pena and Rudy Flores, and Nixon’s Marco Banda. Pena and Flores both won two straight state titles in 2014 and 2015, while Banda won his in 2015.. Flores, a super heavyweight, owns the state record of 2,175 pounds.
The success is the weight room has also translated onto the football. With the Tigers this past fall, Martinez earned second-team All-District honors at offensive tackle.
