The North Platte Irondawgs high school powerlifting team competed in Killeen, Texas last week, with several lifters placing in the Top 10 nationally. 

For the girls, Myah Porter took home a bronze medal for the second year in a row, while Abbie Hankla also returned to the podium, placing fifth. 

Also medaling was Grace Wilke, also a fifth place medalist. Other Top Ten finishes belonged to Karly Knapp and Lauren Bowers, who both placed sixth, Katie Titus at ninth, and Rylee Kissinger who snagged a 10th place finish.

Also hitting qualifying weights for the team were Adyson Stroud, Gabby Gartner, Carlie Berliner, and Jayden McBeain. Overall the girls team finished fourth in the Nationals tournament, a single point out of third.

On the boys side of the competition, Cole Tomlinson brought home the only medal, placing fifth. Alex Valdivia hit qualifying weights for the boys, hitting a personal record in the deadlift along the way, and Aadyn Smith also qualified to return to Nationals next year for his third straight appearance.  For the second year in a row, the co-ed team finished in the top ten, as well, finishing sixth.

Coach Arttie Parker praised the team’s effort.

“We took sixteen kids with us to Texas, including one from Hershey and one from Hastings, and every one of them left everything they had on the platform,” he said. :There were close to 700 kids at this meet, with schools from all over the country. I counted kids from 23 different states, and our NPHS kids hung tough with them all. For our girls to finish fourth is amazing, as we enter the contest at a disadvantage. Some schools have double the number of lifters we have, with three or four lifters in the same weight division, and every kid who hits qualifying marks gets a team point. As a result, some teams start out ten or twelve points ahead of us right from the get go. Finishing fourth, just a single point out of third, is incredible.”  

Parker also mentioned the seniors competing in their final USAPL Nationals tournament.

“I’m just so incredibly happy for this group of seniors,” he said. “For Lauren and Katie to just step into a brand new sport, and to place on the National level, that’s just an amazing accomplishment. Adyson and Gabby both set goals of getting here as competitors this year, after coming as spectators last year, and it’s awesome to watch them go out on the National stage. And, I can’t say enough about Cole and how far he has come from his freshman year until now. To see him standing on that podium with a Nationals medal around his neck, it choked me up, I’m not going to lie. I couldn’t be more excited for him or more proud of him.”  

For most of the team, this was the final event of the year until Cornhusker State Games this summer. However, Tomlinson, Smith, Valdivia, Berliner, Wilke, Titus, and Bowers will join another senior, Mason Stine, in competing at the Powerlifting-America Federation High School Nationals tournament in Omaha in April.

Hershey eighth grader sets state records

Hershey eighth grader, Jaxon Parker, competed at nationals. In just his second powerlifting tournament, Parker set state records in the squat, bench, and deadlift, for his age group, and brought home the silver medal.

Jaxon is the son of Arttie Parker and Parker coaches him as well as the NPHS powerlifters.

“This is the first year that junior high athletes have been invited to compete, so this was a big deal,” Arttie said. “Jaxon competed at the Cornhusker State Games this summer, and when we found out that he had lifted enough weight to qualify for Nationals, Jaxon accepted the challenge, and really went to work in our garage, where we lift.”

Parker went on to talk about Jaxon’s performance.

“He had to really push to get that silver medal,” he said. “In fact, it came down to the last deadlift attempt to see if he got the silver or the bronze. It was really tough competition; the kid who got first has set over a hundred records and won multiple state and national titles already, at just fourteen years old. But Jaxon showed a lot of composure, especially in just his second powerlifting meet ever, to hang in there and just keep competing. I’m just very proud of him, both as his coach and as his Dad. It was a lot of fun to get to see your own kid out there competing like that.”

Jaxon will now turn his attention to track and field at Hershey, where he is a shot putter and discus thrower. As to his son’s future in powerlifting?

“We’ll have to see,” Arttie said. “He wants to go back to Cornhusker State Games this summer, but it depends on his football practice schedule and things like that. Going in as a freshman next year would create an entirely different set of qualifying totals and a whole new group of competitors. We’ll just see what happens.”

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