By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
This past Thursday, January 25, the Port Isabel Powerlifting boys team traveled to Weslaco to compete in the Weslaco HS Quad Meet. The boy’s division saw 48 lifters compete from the following four schools, 4A Port Isabel, 5A Edcouch-Elsa, 5A Harlingen South, and 6A Weslaco.
Port Isabel came in third place with 34 team points, even though it had two athletes Bombed Out (BO) and another disqualified. Harlingen South finished in second place with 36 points and Edcouch-Elsa ran away with 1st place with 72 points.
Port Isabel’s Arnold Lopez continues his dominance in the 114lb weight class, as he picked up his third gold medal in just as many powerlifting meets. Lopez had a total weight of 920 pounds (Squat:335, Bench Press:195, Dead Lift:390) and tacked on another 40 pounds from his previous total weight.
Also securing gold was Zeke Palestina, who competed in the 220lb weight class. This is the first meet
Palestina has competed in this season and recorded a total weight of 1420 pounds (Squat:575, Bench Press:330, Dead Lift:515), an improvement of 65 pounds from last year.
Other top 3 PI finishers, Aaron Barrea finished in 2nd place in the 181lb weight class with a total weight of 1405 pounds; Noah Hernandez (class:181, place:3rd, total wt:1310); Jesus Contreras (class :198, place: 3rd, total wt: 1155); Luis Varela (class:275, place:3rd, total wt:1370).
Other PI competitors: Giovanni Gonzalez (class:165, place:4th, total wt:1030), Jose Galvan (class:181, place:4th, total wt:1150), Arnulfo Hernandez (class: 220, place: 4th, total wt:1075).
Powerlifting coach John Calvillo felt the meet was a success competing against bigger schools. Furthermore, he believes the meet featured “two of the best powerlifting programs in the Region”, said coach Calvillo. “It will make our program better and get them ready for Regional Meet.”
Both boys and girls powerlifting teams will be back in action this Thursday, February 1st as they go on the road to compete in the Hidalgo Invitational.
Team placement was based on the summation of the school’s combined individual awarded points. Individual placement was based on the summation of the following three lifts: 1. Squat, 2. Bench Press, and 3 Deadlift, which results in a Total Lift amount. An athlete was awarded points as follows 7, 5, 3, 2, or 1 for finishing as one of the first five finishers in each weight class.
Bombed Out (BO) means a competitor failed to record a successful lift in any of the required lift types, they are awarded zero points for that lift and their total lift.
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