Cyclone Powerlifters Place Third At State Championships

It was a third-place finish all around for the Clearwater-Orchard powerlifting team at the state championships last weekend. 

Competing at the 2016 Class C High School State Powerlifting Championships at Brownell-Talbot High School in Omaha on Saturday. The Cyclone boys finished third, girls finished third and the co-ed team also finished third.

Uriel Salas earned a state championship while Justin Allemang and Cassie Steskal both finished second in their divisions. Cade Mlnarik, Zane Herley and JoBeth Humphries all finished third. 

This marked the first time Clearwater-Orchard competed at this level, according to coach Jeff Shabram. 

Boys
1st place Brownell Talbot (51 points); 2nd place Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer (47 pts); 3rd place Clearwater-Orchard (20 pts); 4th place (tie) Superior & Douglas County West (15); 6th place Yutan.  Rounding out the field of team competition was Wood River, Archbishop Bergan, Stanton, Pierce, Broken Bow, Concordia, and Johnson County Central.

Girls
The top girls’ team final standings:  1st place Brownell Talbot (38 points); 2nd place HTRS (25 points); 3rd place Clearwater-Orchard (10); 4th place Freeman; 5th place (tie) Concordia, Pierce, & Wood River (5).

Co-Ed
The top Co-ed team final standings:  1st place Brownell Talbot (55 points); 2nd place HTRS (48); 3rd place Clearwater-Orchard (30); 4th place Wood River (10); 5th place Pierce (7); 6th place (5).

Top Individuals
Clearwater-Orchard had one individual state champion in his respective weight class, and that was Uriel Salas (114 lb class).  We had two silver medalists with Justin Allemang and Cassie Steskal.  There were three bronze medalists withCade Mlnarik, Zane Herley, and JoBeth Humphries.  Other O-C individual medalists were Vanessa Carpenter 4th place and Shane Van Ostrand 4th place.  We had one lifter move into the 600lb club for lift total (Tyler Wright), six lifters move into the 700 lb club (Seth Lampert, Jacob Long, Clay Thiele, Zach King, Shawn Buxton, and Zane Herley), one lifter into the 800 lb club (Ira Lampert), and two in the 900 lb club (Justin Allemang and Shane Van Ostrand).  

The final powerlifting meet of the season will be the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet Saturday, April 9, at the Orchard gym. Because this is a sanctioned AAU event, the talents of both the high school and middle school O-C girls and boys lifters will be on display for the home crowd along with many other lifters (student and adult) from around Nebraska and the surrounding states. 

​In the past few years, this AAU event has grown into one of the largest in the Midwest with numerous state and American records set at the Orchard meet.