Last Thursday after the school bells rang, Thorndale High School hosted their first ever powerlifting meet when athletes from Rockdale, Thorndale and Thrall competed in the THS Tri-Meet.
“Powerlifting is pretty new for us,” said THS athletic director John Kovar. “So it was a lot of asking questions before holding the meet.”
“We talked to Coach (Ryan) Montalvo in Rockdale and luckily he knew what he was doing so he helped us a lot.
“We also had a big weight room area so we didn’t have to move a lot of stuff across campus to the basketball gym like a lot of schools have to.”
With the meet also taking place in the midst of a global pandemic, a lot of measures were taken to make sure the event was safe and not a super-spreader event.
“There was a lot of spraying down machines, making sure athletes only hung out with people from their school and not allowing spectators.”
Rockdale’s Montalvo said that’s been the norm for the 2021 season and that schools have to provide their own spotters for competitors and have minimal equipment sharing.
He also said schools now hold smaller meets like the Thorndale Tri-Meet regularly with hopes of limiting exposure. Typical meets in the past hosted between 7-11 schools.
RESULTS—Five Lady Tigers won their respective weight class while four Tigers won theirs.
Jesenia Navarro won the 123-pound weight division for the third time in three meets and fellow early bird regional qualifier Mackenze Musto won the 132, winning her second meet of the season.
Aquilina Lopez won the 97, Jena Locklin won the 148 and Lisbett Boussart won the 181.
Other Lady Tiger lifters were Peyton Smith, who placed sixth in the 123 class and Alyssa Grady, who finished runner-up in the plus division.
For the boys, Antonio Pope won the 123-pound division, Daniel Gardiner won the 220, Gavin Aguilar won the 242 and Miles Grear won the 308.
Musto and Navarro qualified for the regional meet in March last week at Killeen’s Ellison High School when they met the minimum total weight threshold for their division to automatically get a spot at regionals.
Rockdale lifters returned to competition on Wednesday at Wallis-Brazos High School and have one more scheduled meet at Lake Belton on Feb. 17, before the regular season comes to an end.
THORNDALE—THS also had four division winners.
Landri Martinka won the girls 114-pound division and Jason Penick, Luke Merz and Hayden Kylberg won the 148, 165 and 198 divisions for the Bulldogs.
Other Lady Bulldogs lifting were Carlee Clark, Makaelyn Vivas, Bailei Schneider and Mackenzie Tallas, who all placed second in their respective classes.
Juliette Demaio, Emily Owen and Kynlie Cargill all finished in third, Jenna Lindig and Katie Richter placed fourth and Morgan Meadors finished sixth in their divisions.
Other Bulldog lifters were Raymond Avalos, Nick Ramirez and Kaleb Young, who placed second in their weight classes and A.J. Hernandez finished fourth.
Thorndale athletes competed at the Jarrell Tri-Meet on Tuesday after press time and have one more meet scheduled as well on Feb.
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