JACKSON — Caledonia’s girls powerlifting team, at this point last year, wasn’t established yet.
One year later, senior Lauren Brown stood atop the podium at the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A state powerlifting championships as a state title winner.
Brown competed in the 181-pound class for the Cavaliers, bulking up a few pounds before Saturday’s competition, and dominated, lifting a total weight of 795 pounds.
“It was disbelief,” Brown said. “I was so excited. That was the best-case scenario we had planned for. Moving up a weight class, we did expect to rattle people. … This is what I was working toward for months, since September. I wasn’t competing to get second or third place. I was competing to win.”
After reaching 315 pounds on the squat at North State championships in March, Brown set a personal best on her first squat at 335 pounds. She finished with a best of 350 pounds on squat, 120 pounds on the benchpress and a second personal best with a 325-pound deadlift.
Including her lifts at state championships, Brown missed just one lift the entire season, going 20-of-21 on lifts overall.
“She works extremely hard to do the things that she does,” Caledonia head coach Jason Forrester said. “It just continues to show how successful she is when she sets her mind to. She kept a journal that she started back in December and she had monthly goals with our meets through April. She hit every one of those goals.”
Nerves set in for Brown prior to her lifts, especially being in a new setting at Mississippi Coliseum, the biggest venue she had competed in this season.
Additionally, judges on squats were being strict when it came to depth, something that Brown didn’t have issues with during the season of getting low enough on a squat for it to be considered successful.
However, she quickly got into a groove after completing that first lift of the day, putting together a state championship-winning performance.
“I almost threw up like four times and my legs were super shaky, so that’s what I was mainly worried about,” Brown said. “Part of me wanted to go down, but my game plan was to start at 335. … Coming into it, I wasn’t planning on dominating, but the girl who was my best competition, she scratched her lift in squat, so that calmed me down a lot.”
Forrester has gotten to Jackson before with the boys powerlifting team, but the immediate success of the girls team, with three athletes participating in the North State championships on March 3 and a state title winner a month later, is creating buzz within the school.
“I could not have been any more proud of her to make it there and then win,” Forrester said. “It validates the reasoning for us wanting a girls powerlifting team at Caledonia. With her doing what she’s done, it’s already generated more interest for next year and getting people ready to try out for next year.”
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