Niobrara-Verdigre Powerlifters Crowned 2024 Class D State Champions…
The 2024 Class D High School State Powerlifting Championships were held at Harvard High School this past Saturday, March 23rd. It featured 135 lifters representing 12 of the top Class D powerlifting schools in the state. This year’s meet was even larger than last year, and the largest Class D state powerlifting meet since 2005. Class D schools represented were Blue Hill, Boyd County, Bruning-Davenport-Shickley, Centura, Doniphan-Trumbull, Fullerton, Harvard, Niobrara-Verdigre, Red Cloud, Riverside, Silver Lake, and Summerland. The Niobrara-Verdigre Cougar lifters came away with the high school boys, girls, and co-ed team championship trophies!
All Cougar lifters had impressive performances with many personal bests set again. We also had one Cougar boys team record broken by two different lifters! Alex Motacek (5.97) and Westin Bauer (5.90) broke the old mark of 5.83 strength index (weight lifted divided by body weight). We added two more boys to the 900 lb club (Jacob Motacek and Westin Bauer) and moved a whole bunch of lifters to the 700 and 800 lb clubs. Congratulations to all lifters and teams on a fine performance. Thank you for your outstanding behavior while representing our schools and for showing a lot of class towards all competitors. Thank you also for your respect shown towards all meet officials and for helping Harvard High School set up for the meet & clean everything up after the meet. Everyone appreciates it!
The top 3 boys teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre; 2nd place Centura; 3rd place Riverside.
The top 3 girls teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre; 2nd place Boyd County; 3rd place Harvard.
The top Co-ed teams (a mix of the top boys and girls lifters)… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre; 2nd place Boyd County; 3rd place Harvard.
Niobrara-Verdigre had a total of 7 individual state champions in their respective weight classes; 6 earning silver medals; 1 earning a fourth place medal; 3 earning fifth place medals; and 4 finishing in sixth place. Congratulations to all individual lifters. You are all to be commended for your high ranking in the state meet!
The lone boy individual state champion was Lorenzo Denny (275+ lb class) who again had an amazing day of lifting all while helping coach and spot & load. Your efforts are very much appreciated, Lorenzo! Alex Motacek (114 lb class), Landyn Frank (123 lb class), Jacob Motacek (181 lb class), and Isaac Pavlik (220 lb class) were silver medalists. Westin Bauer (165 lb class) earned a fifth place medal. Danny Pease (132 lb class), Wyatt Shabram (148 lb class), Arlan Lammers (165 lb class), and Praeson Klug (275 lb class) finished in sixth place. Other lifters that JUST MISSED OUT on medaling were Jase Kotrous, Cash Wickersham, and Izaak Vakoc in the extremely deep 181 lb class along with Coy Wickersham and Jordon Ingebo in the even deeper 198 lb class.
Girls individual state champions were Christine Mechaley (97 lb class), Gwen Bonham (105 lb class), Melody Bonham (114 lb class), Billie Pritchett (123 lb class), Taylor Pavlik (181 lb class), and Chelsey Rohrer (198 lb class). Aliyah Yunker (181 lb class) and Raquel Morales-Montalvo (198+ lb class) were silver medalists. Miranda Stohlmann (165 lb class) was a fourth place medalist. Kami Simons (148 lb class) and Amaryah Block (165 lb class) earned fifth place medals. Heidi Hollmann and Emmarie Pavlik (bench only) also competed in the 148 lb class. This year’s state competition also had a girls jr. high portion to the meet. Sydney Kumm (105 lb class) and Holly Pavlik (132 lb class) won first place in their respective divisions!
The season isn’t over quite yet! The final meet of the school year will be the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet next Friday, April 5th & Saturday, April 6th at the Orchard Gym. The Orchard meet is a two-day event this year as a National AAU Meet! Because this is a sanctioned AAU event, the talents of both the high school and middle school Niobrara-Verdigre girls and boys lifters will be on display along with many other lifters from across the midwest including numerous adult professional lifters. This meet has grown into THE largest sanctioned meet in the state. Over the past 16 years we have seen numerous State, American, and World records set… hopefully we can have another amazing performance this year. There are over 200 registered lifters, so the Orchard gym will be rocking next Friday & Saturday! Lifting begins at 1:00 pm Friday, Apr. 5th and at 9:00 am Saturday, Apr. 6th. GO COUGARS!
click on the photo at the top to access the entire photo album.
.png)
