The sound of the metal clashes onto the ground as lifter after lifter competes against their opponents and also themselves. Lake Ridge, along with many other schools in the area, competed in the powerlifting Regionals. One of the many girls competing was none other than senior, Savannah Williams. Williams was able to get to first place beating her scores from the previous year.

“I am extremely proud of my results. Last year I got second place and it was hurtful because I am not used to losing. I also got ‘Outstanding Deadlift’ overall and ‘Outstanding Lifter Overall’,” stated Willams.

In powerlifting, weight classes are something they use to classify lifters and their abilities. If someone weighs less or more than their designated weight class, they are dropped or put in completely different classes. That is something Williams struggled with. She was afraid that her weight would affect her competition.

“I struggled with my weight. I have always competed in a 181 weight class, but I was about 200 pounds when the season started. I dropped down to 177 in time for regionals,” stated Williams.

While the girls powerlifting Regionals occurred last Thursday, the boys powerlifting Regionals were held on the following Saturday. Junior, Tatum Feigle, participated in the regionals, but felt that he made a mistake while competing. He didn’t rank as high as he wanted to, causing him to worry that he wouldn’t do as well at his next meets.

“The one mistake I made was not training properly in the equipment I had and not getting in the right mindset when I needed to. My only fear in powerlifting is that when lifting, I won’t hit the weight and not doing better than the last meet. I am not pleased with my results because I know I could’ve made fourth or fifth had I done the weight I have hit many times,” stated Feigle.

With all the sudden closings MISD has had due to Covid and the weather, it has limited training for many sports teams, not excluding powerlifting. Due to this, there were concerns that the team was not prepared for their upcoming meets. Head powerlifting coach, Dustin Rotan, believes that the shutdowns have definitely made training difficult.

“We’ve had weather shutdowns, COVID shutdowns, and holidays. Staying in focus through being in and out of school has been difficult in regards to training,” stated Rotan.

Despite the difficulties in training, three of Lake Ridges’ powerlifters were able to make it to state. This left Rotan feeling proud of his team and their hard work.

“I am proud of the results. Both the boys side and girls side work really hard. Savannah has put a lot of hard work into both this year and last year, so coming out for first place and the breaker of the deadlift record was really good for her. Both of our boys ranked towards the bottom of regionals and both of them were competing to improve their rankings. Cory and Tatum were right there in contention, so both sides did really well,” stated Rotan.

With Williams earning first place at regionals, she now is competing in the state competition which will be occurring on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. To a lot of people, the idea of making it to state can seem nerve racking. However, Williams feels almost ready to compete.

“I don’t feel nervous, but I also don’t feel relaxed either. My expectation of myself is so high that I don’t really know how to explain how I’m feeling. I just know that I’m excited to compete,” stated Williams.

With Williams being one of the few in the district to make it to state in her division, even though the season may be coming to an end, she knows all her hard work and training could soon pay off.