{"id":17944,"date":"2026-04-11T03:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=17944"},"modified":"2026-04-11T03:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:49:00","slug":"grand-island-powerlifting-program-finishes-runner-up-at-nationals-crowns-first-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=17944","title":{"rendered":"Grand Island powerlifting program finishes runner-up at nationals, crowns first champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) &#8211; The Grand Island powerlifting program finished as runner-up at the USAPL National Competition, capping the best year in the program\u2019s five-year history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Islanders sent 18 lifters to Texas to compete and crowned their first national champion in program history when senior Hunter Christenson won his division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Coach Patrick Doyle started the program five years ago with eight athletes. The team has grown to more than 90 participants this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIn years past, we\u2019ve had a session or two off because we haven\u2019t had kids lifting. Well, we had a kid every single session this time,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The steady growth has drawn attention from underclassmen joining the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSee how the other like sophomores and freshmen that are coming in even more every year. It\u2019s really cool to see the potential that\u2019s coming in on our team,\u201d Christenson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Christenson\u2019s national championship came after a three-year progression at the competition. He finished fourth as a sophomore and third as a junior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe knew based on the kids that had graduated and who was coming back that he had a pretty good shot to win it this year,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Christenson said the victory felt surreal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a blur. It\u2019s like afterwards I look back and I don\u2019t remember much, but I kind of know what I did. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s kind of hard to explain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Doyle said Christenson represents the program\u2019s emphasis on hard work and commitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cCame in as a freshman, not really lifting a whole lot and has completely transformed his body and everything and gone from relatively weak as most incoming freshmen do to one of the strongest kids in America, which is pretty cool. So the things that kids can do if you hold them accountable to it are pretty amazing,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Six Grand Island lifters finished in the top 10 of their respective divisions at nationals. Eleven of the 18 qualifiers finished in the top 15.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksnblocal4.com\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Click here<\/i><\/a><i> to subscribe to our KSNB Local4 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\"><i>Copyright 2026 KSNB. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksnblocal4.com\/2026\/04\/11\/grand-island-powerlifting-program-finishes-runner-up-nationals-crowns-first-champion\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) &#8211; The Grand Island powerlifting program finished as runner-up at the USAPL National Competition, capping the best year in the program\u2019s five-year history. The Islanders sent 18 lifters to Texas to compete and crowned their first national champion in program history when senior Hunter Christenson won his division. Coach Patrick Doyle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":17945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-powerlifting-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Grand Island powerlifting program finishes runner-up at nationals, crowns first champion - World Bodybuilding News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=17944\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grand Island powerlifting program finishes runner-up at nationals, crowns first champion - World Bodybuilding News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) &#8211; The Grand Island powerlifting program finished as runner-up at the USAPL National Competition, capping the best year in the program\u2019s five-year history. The Islanders sent 18 lifters to Texas to compete and crowned their first national champion in program history when senior Hunter Christenson won his division. 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