The Lowndes County School District is to be well represented in the MHSAA Class 5A state powerlifting meet as both Caledonia and New Hope earned podium finishes Wednesday in the North Half meet and both teams left with some hardware.
Three Cavs claimed first place in the event to help the team a second-place silver medal with a total score of 42, and eight individual lifters earned the right to advance to the state championship meets, which will be held March 27.
Pontotoc won the North Half meet with a score of 48.
Molly Clements took home gold in the 123-pound division with 605 points, Peyton Tucker captured first in the 148-pound division with 625 points, and Madison Woody was the North Half champion in the 165-pound weight class with a total of 690 points. Pacy Rushing (148) – who is in eighth grade – and Camelia Clay (242) each grabbed second-place finishes with 610 and 815 points, respectively. Justice Shinn (242), Jaiden Egger (181) and Julia’nna Andrews (132) all placed third in their respective weight classes with 795, 610 and 575 points, respectively.
For head coach Jason Forrester, who’s led the program since its inception five years ago, it has been fun to see the program grow from only sending one lifter to the state meet to now sending a unit that’s capable of competing for a team championship.
“Now, we’re seeing where I’m able to keep more lifters each year and we’re able to build the program,” he said. “You can only lift 12 in a meet, but we had 25 on our team this year because of creating competition and we have invitationals and we can let them all lift there, and it just helps to push people to lift a little better. It’s (now) kind of like football and other sports where you have more to choose from, but you continue to grow people into the program, which keeps on fueling and going forward.
“With eight of them going we know we have an opportunity to win a state championship as a team. A lot of things have to go right and everybody’s got to hit their marks and it’s going to be really, really, tough to finish even second, much less even compete for the state championship, but it’s also nice to know that you’ve got enough people going where you can try to accumulate enough points to be able to have that opportunity.”
New Hope earns 3rd place finish
Finishing right behind the Cavs was New Hope’s girls team, which had seven lifters combine for the third-place bronze medal with a score of 35. All seven Trojans who entered the event earned the right to compete on March 27 at the state meet.
Emery Holland finished first in the 114-pound division with 520 points along with Ja’kalee Smith, who won the 132-pound division with 660 total points. Kayla Dyson’s 525 points were good enough for second in the 105-pound division along with Ava Mordecai (123) and Kameron Johnson (198), who each captured silver with 500 and 640 points, respectively.
Lylah Pinton landed third in the 97-pound weight class with a score of 270, and Jessa Johnson also finished third in the 242-pound division with 555 points.
“Anytime that you can get out all that you take and move on to the next round you feel good about it,” said head coach Stuart Shaw, who is in his first year as head coach after spending the year prior on staff as an assistant coach. “We made some big jumps the past two years with the program and all, so having seven go to state, that’s the most we’ve had so far since my time here. So, you feel good that you’re headed in the right direction.”
Shaw said they are feeling optimistic about the state meet, and he believes some Trojans will come back as a state champion.
“We have a couple of girls who we feel good about that have a chance to win it all,” he said. ”… We feel really good about the two first-place finishers being able to get in and compete and try and win a ring there. Some of those girls in second place were in some battles for first, second and third, so we’re going to go in there and make some gains over the next month and try to push up if we can.”
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