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EAGLE LAKE — The third and final installment of the Rice-hosted Swamp Strength series ended with a bang after a full two-day event last week that featured many nearby schools including all three Colorado County powerlifting teams. Each team finished with some strong performances as there were several who took top placements throughout the meet.
Rice
The Rice powerlifting team has been having solid performances all season and continued that trend into their third home meet this year. They picked up a few top-5 placements from their lifters as they added up to a respectable team score. John Mendoza was the lone gold-medal winner for the boys. Luis Ceballos finished as a top three lifter in his weight class, while Angel Gonzales claimed the Raiders’ final top-5 placement. Jadon Gonzales just missed out on cracking the top five with a sixth-place finish in his weight class.
The girls truly brought the power as they claimed several top spots in a strong effort that has become standard for the Lady Raiders. Not only did they have one of the biggest teams at the meet, they also got several top performances from their top lifters. Vanessa Marquez was the only gold medalist, but Samantha Olvera, Raegan Nelson and Bradi Freeman all claimed second place for their classes. Citlalli Vasquez took another top-5 placement for the Lady Raiders as they quickly added up team points.
Weimar
The Weimar boys had several close calls with many lifters finishing on the edge of the top five in their weight class. There were a few lifters who manage to carry themselves into the top five and secure some points for the Wildcats. Dakota Ford was Weimar’s top finisher of the day, taking third place in his weight class. Ethan Stech also claimed points for the team with his fifth-place finish. As previously mentioned, the Wildcats had many lifters who landed just outside of the top five despite their strong outings. Manny Gayton, Waylon Schimcek and Chris Moreno all finished in sixth place in their respective weight classes.
Weimar sent just two girls to compete in Eagle Lake, but they still were able to secure some points as a team after a strong performance from Ashley Treece. She finished in third place in her weight class to secure the only points for the girls as her teammate Zowie Lee finished in tenth place out of 24 competitors in the most crowded weight class of the meet for the girls.
Columbus
The Cards ended up employing a slightly different way of accruing team points as they did not rely solely on lifters medaling with a top-three spot in their weight class. However, they had a high volume of lifter take the tertiary scoring spots as they flooded the list with top-five placements. Jesse Reip was the Cards only gold medalist. In his same weight class, Cayden Tello took the fifth-place spot with teammate Clay Kohleffel just behind in sixth place. The Heffley’s, Ross and Logan, each took on the same weight class and finished in fourth and fifth place respectively. Hunter Mangum secured a fourth-place finish, and Devin Woods finished in fifth place to round out all of the Cards’ top-five placements.
The Lady Cards also secured a solid amount of team points following a strong performance by the three lifters who participated. They were led by a gold-medal performance by Andreanna Shropshire and got a big boost from the third-place finish of Melanie Hernandez. Lexi Ybarra finished in 14th place against the most crowded weight class for the girls.
