On March 12th 2009 the 5th annual Mississippi 8 lifting competition was held at Buffalo High School. There were 117 lifters total coming from five different schools: Buffalo, Monticello, St.Michael, Rogers and Princeton. Monticello High School won the title as a team with 92 points. Buffalo came in a close second with 88 points. Princeton took third, Rogers took fourth and STMA took fifth.
“It’s an exciting competition,” said Weight Lifting Coach Troy Hanson, ” people get to showcase their hard work by putting their body to the test.”
Not many people are even aware that this competition goes on. But the people who participate take it very seriously. Many of the people who have been training for the competition have been training for a long time.
“I’ve been training for the competition since the beginning of tenth grade.” said Junior Joey Verdugo. “I lift at home and at school six times a week.”
For males and females there are different classes. For females there are three different levels that start at level one, level two, and level three. For males there are eight different weights that start at 132, 148, 157, 165, 181, 198, 215, and heavyweight. Medals were awarded to the top three plcaes in each weight class.
Senior Brian Witzany placed first in his weight class and broke three mississippi 8 records in bench, clean and his total score. He had been training hard all year, these awards are defiantly deserved.
“Some people thought I was obsessed with lifting so much just for the looks. But this something I really wanted.” Says Witzany.” Obsessed is just a word the lazy use to describe dedicated.”
-Samantha Rymanowski and Sara Larson
