By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

Schools from as far as Cleveland and Columbus areas came to compete at the Bucyrus High School football team’s power lifting competition, but it was three area schools taking home the top three places.

Starting with weigh in at 9 a.m. students across 5 weight groups competed for top total weight lifted in bench press, squat, and dead lift, as well as best body mass index. South Central finished in first place overall with Northmore finishing second, and Bucyrus finishing third.

South Central coach Brian Kiesel was pleased with his team’s performance which was the Trojan’s first performance at the Bucyrus Weightlifting invitational in six years.

“I am so proud of our kids, they worked so hard,” Kiesel said. “It is nice to see them get that first place they work hard for it every week. It’s not really a sport that gets a whole lot of recognition so that is kind of their recognition when they get that place and that trophy.”

“We had girls break six out of nine records, and Carson Kinney broke three records in his weight class,” Kiesel noted.

Kinney took meet records in the squat, (610 lbs) and dead lift, (555 lbs) and total (1485 lbs) in the competition.

Bucyrus football head coach Aaron Eckert explained the purpose of the competition

“It’s a summative thing for us in Bucyrus to show off our hardwork, and open it up to area athletes to show what they have been doing all winter,” Eckert said. “Some athletes don’t play basketball, wrestle, or swim this gives them something to look forward to.”

Top places in total weight lifted per weight division and class:

Heavy Weight

210 lb Class
Andrew Stump – 1195 lbs

225 lb Class
Carson Kinney – 1485 lbs

250 lb Class
Gunner Doretich – 1415 lbs

Unlimited Class
Josh Chance – 1335 lbs

Middle Weight

165 lb Class
Jake Shambre – 1175 lbs

175 lb Class
Michael Pittman – 950 lbs

185 lb Class
Sam Zimmerman – 1080 lbs

195 class
Garret Beale – 980 lbs

Light Weight:

125 lb Class
Mastyn Evans – 690 lbs

135 lb Class
Caleb Ross – 857.5 lbs

145 lb Class
Gavin Ward – 935 lbs

155 lb Class
Logan Childers – 825 lbs

Women’s:

Feather Weight
Skye Mills – 565 lbs

Light Weight
Samantha Jayes – 785 lbs

Middle Weight
Emily Wrothington – 895 lbs

Jr. High:

130 lb and Under
Collin Crider – 580 lbs

130-170 lb
Ben Zimmerman – 765 lbs

Over 170 lb
Beau Foreman – 1060 lbs