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Niobrara-Verdigre Powerlifters Class D state champions!

The 2025 Class D High School State Powerlifting Championships were held at Harvard High School this past Saturday, March 22^nd.  It featured 125 lifters representing the top Class D powerlifting schools in the state.  Schools represented were Amherst, Blue Hill, Boyd County, Bruning-Davenport-Shickley, Centura, Fullerton, Harvard, Johnson-Brock, Niobrara-Verdigre, Red Cloud, Riverside, Silver Lake, Staplehurst, and Summerland.  The Niobrara-Verdigre Cougar lifters came home Class D state champs… boys, girls, and co-ed!

All Cougar lifters had impressive performances with many personal bests set again.  Special congratulations goes to Melody Bonham who was crowned the outstanding female lifter of the meet by strength index (total lifted divided by body weight)!  We also had two Cougar boys team records broken and a girls team record broken!  Isaac Pavlik reset his own deadlift record with 505 lbs and his own total record with 1225 lbs.  Raquel Morales-Montalvo reset her own squat record with 335 lbs.  Many lifters again moved up to new weight clubs… Beckett Wessendorf is now in the 900 lb club; Wyatt Shabram and Praeson Klug moved to 800 lb club; Zack Bolling and Gage Vesely moved to 700 lb club; Logan Collingsworth, Braden Collingsworth, and Levi Hoferer moved to the 500 lb club; and Christine Mechaley moved to the 400 lb club.  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!

Niobrara-Verdigre had a total of 11 individual state champions in their respective weight classes!  Two earned silver medals; 7 earned bronze; two earned fifth place medals; and one finished in sixth place.  Congratulations to all individual lifters.  You are all to be commended for your high ranking in the state meet!

Boys individual state champions were Alex Motacek (123 lb class), Connor Thomson (148 lb class), Jacob Motacek (165 lb class), and Isaac Pavlik (220 lb class).  Boys silver medalist was Levi Hoferer (114 lb class).  Boys bronze medalists were Charles Frame (114 lb class), Danny Pease (132 lb class), and Praeson Klug (275+ lb class).  Other boys medalists were Arlan Lammers (5^th-181 lb class), Beckett Wessendorf (5^th- 198 lb class), and Wyatt Shabram (6^th- 181 lb class).  Boys lifters that just missed out on medaling were Logan Collingsworth (148 lb class) and Gage Vesely (165 lb class) in extremely deep weight classes.

Girls individual state champions were Christine Mechaley (97 lb class), Sydney Kumm (105 lb class), Melody Bonham (123 lb class), Emmarie Pavlik (148 lb class), Aliyah Yunker (165 lb class), Taylor Pavlik (181 lb class), and Raquel Morales-Montalvo 198+ lb class).  Dayna Sharp (132 lb class) was a silver medalist.  Gwen Bonham (114 lb class), Miranda Stohlmann (148 lb class), Nyla Wright (165 lb class), and RaeLynne Nelson (181 lb class) were bronze medalists.

This year’s state competition also had a jr. high portion to the meet.  Braden Collingsworth (123 lb class), Mykel Murray (132 lb class), Lennix Chavez (148 lb class), Austin Sharp (165 lb class), and Holly Pavlik (148 lb class) were gold medalists.  Carter Sharp (132 lb class) and Zack Bolling (165 lb class) were silver medalists.

The season isn’t over quite yet!  The final meet of the school year will be the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet next Friday, April 4^th & Saturday, April 5^th at the Orchard Gym.  The Orchard meet is another 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 is THE largest sanctioned meet in the state.  Over the past 18 years we have seen numerous State, American, and World records set… hopefully we can have another amazing performance this year.  There are 200 registered lifters, so the Orchard gym will be rocking next Friday & Saturday!  Lifting begins at 1:00 pm Friday, Apr. 4^th and at 9:00 am Saturday, Apr. 5^th.  GO COUGARS!