By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
On Friday, Jan. 31 the Port Isabel men’s powerlifting team competed at the Meet of Champions powerlifting meet held at the Brownsville Sports Park Dome.
The meet featured 166 lifters competing from a whopping 16 Rio Grande Valley schools. Besides Port Isabel,
other notable teams were Weslaco East, Donna, Edcouch-Elsa, Harlingen, Brownsville Veterans and Bro. Hanna.
The following are the Port Isabel powerlifting results:
In the 114-weight class, Arnold Lopez won his second gold of the season with a total lift of 1015 lbs. (Squat:355, Bench:245, Dead Lift:415). Although his total lift increase from his previous meet is only 25 lbs., it still helps him retain his #2 regional ranking for his weight class.
In the 181-weight class, Aaron Barrera won his third gold in as many meets this season with a total lift of 1455 lbs. (Squat:520, Bench:425, Dead Lift:510). Barrera who held the #1 regional ranking last week only made a small 10 lb. increase in total lift. Consequently, he dropped down from #1 to the #5 region ranking.
Also in the same weight class, Noah Hernandez came in 5th place with a total lift of 1290 lbs. (Squat:500,
Bench:315, Dead Lift:475). Hernandez made the team’s best individual improvement as he increased his total lift by 85 lbs. and is ranked #10 in the region.
In the 198-weight class, Joe Perez won silver with a total lift of 1280 lbs. (Squat:485, Bench:295, Dead Lift:500). Jose Galvan came in 4th place with a total lift of 1250 lbs. (Squat:510, Bench:305, Dead Lift:435) and Michael Finona came in 5th place with a total lift of 1195 lbs. (Squat:495, Bench:235, Dead Lift:465). Finona made a significant 50 lb. improvement in total lift over his previous meet.
In the 220-weight class, Arnulfo Hernandez came in 7th place with a total lift of 1210 lbs. (Squat:485, Bench:245, Dead Lift:480). Although Port Isabel had five lifters that “bombed out” or disqualified, the team still scored enough points (23) to finish in 3rd place in the team standings. The other top five teams were, Edcouch-Elsa (38 points), Brownsville Hanna (29 points), Bro. Rivera (20 points) and Harlingen (19 points).
The PI women’s team took the week off as they rest and prepare for the upcoming meets, including the last
regional qualifier. Regarding the men’s team, Port Isabel’s powerlifting head coach, John Calvillo, thought his team did well, but could’ve done better.
“The boys had a good chance of winning the Brownsville meet if we had those [disqualified] kids finish the meet, but our boys wanted to take some risk and add to their state totals,” said Calvillo. “But overall, our boys did well and competed with the best in the valley and in our Region.”
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