Royal to host power lifting meet

ROYAL CITY - Four Royal High power lifters have qualified for the state meet in Ocean Shores on May 9. More will attempt to make it at this Saturday's Royal High School Power Lifting meet.

The lifting will begin at 10 o'clock with weigh-ins for the lifters from 8-9 a.m. It will be an all-day event, and Royal lifters are hoping to draw between 80-100 lifters. Other meets have had up to 150.

"We would like to invite everyone to come and watch on Saturday," Royal coach Paul Olsufka said. "This is the only meet on the east side of the mountains."

It takes a lot of volunteers to stage a power lifting meet. Olsufka asks of your time Friday and/or Saturday to help. The gym will be set up for the meet on Friday.

If you can help, you may contact Olsufka at Royal High School or email at polsufka@royal.wednet.edu.

As of the White Salmon meet, the Royal lifters who have qualified for the state meet are Hunter Follett, Tony Mercado, Lesly Martinez and Juan Garcia. The last chance to qualify, after the Royal meet, will come in Shelton on April 18.

"We hope to qualify additional athletes at these two meets," Olsufka said.

The last meet at which Royal participated was at Columbia River High School. Follett was the only Knight in the field, and he took the championship at 198 pounds.

Follett did a squat of 415 pounds, a bench lift of 280 and a dead lift of 450 to total 1,145. He set personal records in the squat, increasing it by 45 pounds, and the bench, increasing it by 40 pounds.

"He has been working very hard," Olsufka said.

Royal had its best turnout at the Snohomish meet. The results were:

Guillermo Navarro, 181 pounds: Squat 285, Bench 215 and Dead Lift 335, Total 835.

Hunter Follett, 198 pounds: 2nd place, Squat 370, Bench 240 and DL 455, Total 1,065.

Tony Mercado, 198 pounds: 3rd place, Squat 375, Bench 255 and DL 425, Total 1,055.

Derek Alatorre, 220 pounds: 6th place, Squat 315, Bench 195 and DL 370, Total 880.

Juan Garcia, unlimited: Squat 425, Bench 265 and DL 375, Total 1,065.

Salvador Cavazos, unlimited: Squat 355, Bench 265 and DL 355, Total 975.

All of these lifters set personal records at this meet. Cavazos was a newcomer.

"I am excited and proud for each of our athletes when they can set a new PR," Olsufka said.

So far, Royal has had six boys and one girl compete in meets. A number of others should compete at Royal's meet, a few more boys and a couple of girls.

Power Lifting is team sport built around individual competition, sort of like golf. You compete against the weight itself to see if you can set personal records and out-lift your competitors at the same time.

"You get a real feeling of accomplishment when you set a PR or can catch the person in front of you," Olsufka said. "The results are posted from each meet so the kids know who is ahead of them, giving them motivation to step up at the next meet and move up a spot on the podium and qualify for State."

Young people can get a lot out of being in the weight room, Olsufka said. They build confidence as the weight increases on the lifts.

"When the muscles are burning, and you are shaking because you had a great workout, you know that you are getting stronger," Olsufka said.

Another positive that comes about from lifting is conditioning for all athletic competition. Your joints become more stable and less prone to injury.

Power lifting teaches sportsmanship. Although they are in competition, athletes from one team help athletes from another as well as their own teammates.

"When someone is trying a big number on the bar, everyone seems to stop and look, cheer and try to will the weight up for them," Olsufka said.

Each school can have two individuals in each weight class score points for the team. There are awards for the top three teams. There are six places for boys and girls in each weight class.

"They look at the leader board after each lift and are estimating how much they have to lift to catch or pass the person in front of them," Olsufka said. "Five pounds may be the difference in going to state or not and, as in any competition, you have good and bad days."