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EAGLE LAKE — The Rice powerl ifting program hosted their penultimate meet in the Swamp Strength series for 2023 on Saturday, Feb. 18. Each varsity program in Colorado County attended as the teams get ready for the regionals competition that is slated for the first week of March. Each school got some strong returns from this meet, and they will be hoping that their performances at this meet as well as the final Swamp Strength competition on Thursday, Feb. 23 will translate into more strong outings at the regional meet.
Rice
The Rice powerlifting team added on to their strong season with another host of good performances over the weekend. The girls once again took several top spots as they provided another clinical outing. Samantha Olvera, Vanessa Marquez and Reagan Nelson all took first place for their respective weight classes to lead the Lady Raiders in points for the team. Taylor Eichelberger contributed some team points as well with a fourth-place finish in her weight class. Raelee Nelson and Blanca Molina finished back-to-back in their weight class, finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively. In that same weight class, Leilany Toriz just missed out on securing team points with a sixth-place finish. Kasey Eggemeyer also got as close as sixth after her lifts.
The boys were able to secure a number of top-5 placements, but the higher number of competitors made it slightly more difficult for the Raiders to claim those top spots. Jadon Gonzales had the team-high placement for Rice with a second-place f inish. Luis Cebal los took the next-highest finish with third place in his weight class. Ruston Krenek was the final top-5 finisher for the Raiders. Joshua Vasquez just missed out on the top-5 with a sixth-place finish.
Columbus
Columbus sent just two lady lifters to the penultimate meet, but they were still able to come away with a medal performance and were just a single spot from having both finish in the top five of their weight classes. Alexandra Ruvalcabra brought in the medal for the Lady Cards with a third-place finish in her class. Lainey Schindler just missed out on the top-5 by finishing in sixth place.
The boys got some of their highest placements of the season with their performances over the weekend. Hunter Mangum took the highest placement with the gold medal in his weight class. Daegan Stevens took points as well with fifth place in the same weight class. Clay Kohleffel had the next-highest result with second place in his class. Lyndon Chambers took fourth and Devin Woods took fifth in their respective classes to contribute to the Cards’ team score.
Weimar
Like Columbus, the Weimar Ladycats sent just two lifters to represent for the girls. Weimar took advantage of their limited numbers and came away with two medaling performances from each competitor. Ashley Treece had the team-high placement for the day, finishing with the silver medal after her performance. Zowie Lee claimed third place to add more team points for the girls’ team.
The Weimar boys had a trio of third-place finishes pace their performances at Swamp Strength. Manny Gayton, Ethan Stech and Chris Moreno claimed that honor for their respective weight classes. Hardy Hay had a fourth-place finish and Waylon Schimcek took fifth place as they claimed points for the Wildcats. Brendan Brandt and Dane Morternson just missed out on a point-scoring placement with sixth-place finishes.
