Chad Zschiesche knew that his team could do something special. His hunch turned out right.
The Summit powerlifting coach sat down and looked at the competition’s numbers with fellow coach Shane Stephen. They both realized that if some of their athletes could post somewhere around their best numbers at regionals, they’d have some athletes go to the state meet.“We knew if we went in there and all of our kids could surpass their previous totals, we had a chance as a team,” Zschiesche said. “We try to preach the team side of it and that it’s more important to compete as a team.”Their guidance paid off, with four Summit boys lifters qualifying for the state meet in Abilene on March 23.Senior Dominique Moreland, junior Matthew Barrett, junior Tumarius Flowers and junior Jearld McGlothin advanced to state.“Every one of these boys worked so hard and it was a tribute to how hard they worked during the season,” Zschiesche said. “Every one of our kids that we took had their best meets of the year. It was on the biggest stage and they did their best.”In the 123-pound weight class, Moreland advanced with a first-place finish. He set two school records in the squat and deadlift with lifts of 400 and 465 pounds, respectively.Moreland’s total lift weight of 1,075 pounds in the three lifts (squat, bench and deadlift) was also a school record. This will be Moreland’s third trip to state in four years at Summit.Barrett competed in the 148-pound weight class. His 465-pound squat and 515-pound deadlift were both school records. Going into his deadlift, Zschiesche said Barrett needed to add just 15 pounds to his previous lift and that would get him into state with a 1,200 pound total.Sure enough, Barrett pulled it off.“It was such a big lift,” Zschiesche said. “It was pretty exciting.”In the 165-pound weight class, Flowers advanced to state by lifting a school record 530 pounds in the deadlift to give him 1,300 total in his three events.McGlothin advanced to state in the 220-pound weight class with a 1,515 pound total in his three events, including a school-record 630-pound deadlift.“All these kids had the best meet of the year at this meet,” Zschiesche said. “By them all doing their best and placing where they placed, we scored 19 points. That 19 earned us a third place team finish. Summit has never placed at regional as a team.”Zschiesche said the dedication his athletes showed throughout the season is the main reason for the success.“Some of these kids also run track and they come in after they ran track to lift,” Zschiesche said. “They've really pushed themselves on their lifts to get their totals up. For it all to come together, it was really rewarding for the kids and for us as coaches.”The girls weren’t to be outdone. Senior Meagon Jones and freshman Ivony Walker advanced to the girls powerlifting state meet in Corpus Christi on March 15.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
