OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Athletes lifted all Saturday morning, for a contest that means much more to them than just a competition.
- Winneconne middle school gym full of student athletes all day Saturday
- Lifters explain why they started powerlifting and what it's like the day of the meet
- Coaches describe the rising popularity they see in lifting and describe the different categories of the lifts
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"It's always been a pretty big sport in Wisconsin, but it's grown in popularity a lot, especially in the last 10 years or so" Dave Loukidis the Winneconne High School powerlifting Head Coach said.
Winneconne Middle School was the site of the Dave Admovich Memorial powerlifting meet. Admovich is a former Xavier High School powerlifting coach who passed away five years ago.
"We run this meet in his name to honor him and all the amazing things he did to help start powerlifting in this state, and it's also a great fundraiser for the Winneconne team" Jordan Peroutky the Wisconsin State Chair for USA power lifting said.
The meet began at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday with around 380 power lifters from 24 schools around the Fox Valley.
"Wisconsin has the highest power lifters in high school per capita out of any state in the country" Alex Del Vecchio the Oshkosh North High School powerlifting Head Coach said.
Powerlifters say their nerves run pretty high on the morning of a meet.
"A lot of people take pre-workout, but my adrenaline is just so high that I don't even need pre-workout. I'm shaking and everything, but yeah, I'm usually already set to go" one powerlifter said.
"So all of these athletes are probably some of the best powerlifters in the country when they come out here and compete" Del Vecchio said.
Powerlifting athletes compete in three main categories.
"Squat, bench, and deadlift. And you do the attempts, you get three attempts for each lift, and it goes in rounds. So lightest to heaviest in each attempt, and then you just keep going through" Peroutky said.
"Then your best one of each of those gets added up to a total" Loukidis said.
The requirements that the student athletes perform at in order to qualify for state are more challenging than others.
"Our standards to make state competition in Wisconsin are higher than the top 10% in the country" Del Vecchio said.
Though the sport is intense, another group of lifters say it’s what they love to do.
"It's just a fun time fun atmosphere cause everyone's just pumping each other up and just saying 'go go go' and no doubt so it's really fun" the student powerlifters said.
The coaches say that the power lifting season runs from November through March. The state meet which is the qualifier for nationals is in March.
