2025 Verdigre Powerlifting Meet a huge success…
2025 Verdigre Powerlifting Meet a huge success…
The fourth annual Verdigre Powerlifting Meet was held this past Saturday, March 1st with 227 lifters representing fifteen different schools from around the state. It was an outstanding day of lifting for the Cougar competitors in front of their home crowd. And what an awesome crowd it was, packed in the Verdigre gym with standing room only! Nearly every Niobrara-Verdigre lifter set personal bests, and five Cougar powerlifting records were broken Saturday. Isaac Pavlik broke his own squat record with a lift of 455 lbs and his own total record with 1215 lbs. Isaac also broke Gunnar Shabram’s school bench press record with 265 lbs. Alex Motacek broke his own school record in strength index (total weight lifted divided by body weight) with a new index of 6.76. Raquel Morales-Montalvo broke Gabrielle Pavlik’s school squat record with 330 lbs. This year we again honored the Hrbek family by naming the outstanding individual lifter awards after Tom & Dale Hrbek. Our own Taylor Pavlik earned the Dale Hrbek Memorial outstanding female lifter of the meet based on strength index. The Tom Hrbek Memorial outstanding male lifter award was earned by Niobrara’s Alex Motacek.
After a busy day of lifting (10 ½ hours!), the Cougars were crowned team champions in Co-ed and Girls categories! The high school boys earned 3rd place behind only two other powerhouse schools, Lexington & North Platte. The jr. high team tied Boyd County for 1st place.
The top 6 co-ed teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre (79 pts); 2nd place North Platte (78); 3rd place Lexington (53); 4th place McCook (43); 5th place Grand Island (22); 6th place Boyd County (20).
The top 6 girls teams… 1st place Niobrara-Verdigre (74 pts); 2nd place North Platte (66); 3rd place Lexington (42); 4th place Boyd County (20); 5th place McCook (18); 6th place Seward (12).
The top 6 boys teams… 1st place North Platte (64 pts); 2nd place Lexington (43); 3rd place Niobrara-Verdigre (37); 4th place Centura (33); 5th place McCook (25); 6th place Johson-Brock (22).
The top 4 jr. high teams… 1st place (tie) Boyd County (88 pts) & Niobrara-Verdigre (88); 3rd place Summerland (27); 4th place Centura (10).
With 227 total registered lifters, that ensured EVERY WEIGHT CLASS WAS LOADED WITH A DEEP FIELD OF EXTREMELY STONG ATHLETES! Niobrara-Verdigre had an amazing 12 individual gold medalists: Alex Motacek 123 lb class, Braden Collingsworth 123 lb class (jr high), Mykel Murray 132 lb class (jr. high), Lennix Chavez 148 lb class (jr. high), Austin Sharp 165 lb class (jr. high), Sydney Kumm 105 lb class, Holly Pavlik 148 lb class (jr. high), Aliyah Yunker 165 lb class, Taylor Pavlik 181 lb class, Raquel Morales-Montalvo 198+ lb class, Emilee Babcock 198+ lb class (jr. high), and Riley Fuchtman 114 lb class (jr. high) push-pull. Eight lifters won the silver medal in their weight class... Rader Frame 114 lb class (jr. high), Carter Sharp 132 lb class (jr. high), Zackary Bolling 165 lb class (jr. high), Isaac Pavlik 220 lb class, Christine Mechaley 97 lb class, Violet Pavlik 123 lb class (jr. high), Dayna Sharp 132 lb class, and Emmarie Pavlik 148 lb class. Seven lifters won the bronze medal in their weight class… Danny Pease 132 lb class, Sam Sucha 132 lb class (jr. high), Carson Janak 148 lb class (jr. high), Arlan Lammers 181 lb class, Maddox Tramp 181 lb class (jr. high), Gwen Bonham 114 lb class, and Melody Bonham 123 lb class. Other medalists were… Levi Hoferer 4th place 114 lb class, Connor Thomson 4th place 148 lb class, Jacob Motacek 4th place 165 lb class, Miranda Stohlmann 4th place 148 lb class, RaeLynne Nelson 4th place 181 lb class, Praeson Klug 5th place 275 lb class, Charles Frame 6th place 114 lb class, and Wyatt Shabram 7th place 181 lb class. We had three other lifters competing in even more difficult weight classes… Nyla Wright 9th place 165 lb class, Beckett Wessendorf 11th place 198 lb class, and Gage Vesely 17th place 165 lb class.. It was an impressive display of power Saturday as many of the Cougar lifters bumped up to stronger lifting clubs. We now have seven boys lifting 800 lbs or more… Isaac Pavlik, Jacob Motacek, Arlan Lammers, Beckett Wessendorf, Alex Motacek, Connor Thomson, and Wyatt Shabram with Mykel Murray, Austin Sharp, and Praeson Klug moving into the 700+ lb club. On the girls side we have Raquel Morales-Montalvo lifting over 800 lbs, Taylor Pavlik totaling 700 lbs, and three girls in the 600+ lb club… Holly Pavlik, Aliyah Yunker, and RaeLynne Nelson. The kids are working hard!
This event would not have happened had it not been for our very generous sponsors and the help of many volunteers from our communities. There were over 70 volunteers from Verdigre and the surrounding communities helping run this meet as judges, spotters & loaders, score table workers, ticket takers, hosts & hostesses, photographers & filmers, concession stand workers, and post-prom fundraiser workers. This broke last year’s record for participants by 21 lifters! Thank you to everyone who came and volunteered their time Saturday to help support these kids. It takes effort from multiple communities to pull off this big of an event, and it was wonderful to see everyone come together to help! Thank you to Verdigre Public School (including administration, staff, and boosters), to all the parents & lifters who helped with set-up and clean-up, and to the Village of Verdigre for hosting this powerlifting meet. And thank you to everyone who came out to cheer on these hard-working lifters!
Our next powerlifting meet is the Class D State Meet March 22nd at Harvard High School. Then the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet is a two-day event this year as a National AAU Meet which will be held on Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th at the Orchard gym. This is a sanctioned meet with lifters eligible to set AAU State, American, and World records. That meet will be another large meet and a fun two days of lifting!
Go Cougars!
Here are our local sponsors…
2025 Niobrara-Verdigre Powerlifting Sponsors
Tom’s Family Foods
Verdigre PrintWorks
Bohemian One Stop
Avery Welding
Simons Trucking & Pumping
Moody Motor Company
Verdigre Farm Service
Pinnacle Bank
The Verdigre Eagle
Pease General Store
Sportsmen’s – Niobrara
ReNew Salon
Herbert Feed & Grain
Verdigre Collision Repair
Sucha Repair
Reiman Coffee Company
Schreier’s Lumber
Jedlicka’s Hardware Hank
Brunswick State Bank
Mossy Oak Properties/Ryan Vesely
Big Red Car Wash & Storage
Sonder Well
N & B Gas
Verdigre Bakery
Niobrara Trading Post
Country Creations
Hoferer Construction
Superior Turf
4/11 Bar & Grill
Verdigre Booster Club
Around the Horn Sportscards
Jack & Karen Allemang
Monte Shabram
.png)
