With the two months of powerlifting season in repetition, the team have had its first meets of the season: the Intrasquad Meet, an isolated meet for the students of Neenah High and Neenah Middle, which took place on Dec. 9, and the Winneconne Meet, or the WHSPA Dave Adamovich Memorial, a larger meet for schools around Wisconsin, which took place on Jan. 6 at Winneconne Middle School.

This year’s Intrasquad Meet was packed with 121 lifters: 82 high schoolers and 39 middle schoolers. Like last year, Intrasquad was held in the Neenah Middle School cafeteria, and it was held with two platforms, and for the most part, high schoolers on one platform, and middle schoolers on the other. Because the number of middle schoolers was so small, three flights of boys had been added to the middle school platform to avoid a longer waiting time.

Winneconne was crowded with 377 total lifters (Lifting Cast); about ¼ (84) of those lifters were from Neenah High alone. Every lifter at the meet did an outstanding job, and surprisingly, for the amount of lifters that were at this meet, it did not take that long. Lifting that day started at 8 a.m., with Neenah High School needing to meet at the school by 5 a.m., getting loaded onto two buses at 5:15 a.m., and getting there for weigh-ins, which started at 6 a.m. 

Relating to awards at the end of Winneconne, plenty of Neenah lifters received medals for the Top 3 in their weight classes. In total, 39 lifters from Neenah made it into the Top 3 (Lifting Cast). In anticipation for the Neenah Meet,  32 lifters  qualified for state, which will take place in Appleton on March 2-3, and at least half will go to nationals, which will happen in Baton Rouge, LA on April 4-7.

Returning to the awards passed out at Winneconne, lifters taking home a medal, include:

Bri Ankerson – 1st, 114 Girl’s Equipped

Ava Meyer – 2nd, 165 Girl’s Equipped

Rylee Ehlke – 1st, 97 Girl’s Raw

Brenna Leiton – 3rd, 114 Girl’s Raw

Emma Donahue – 2nd, 123 Girl’s Raw

Bianca Quinonez – 3rd, 123 Girl’s Raw

Aubrie Vanevenhoven – 1st, 132 Girl’s Raw

Savannah Blocksom – 2nd, 132 Girl’s Raw

Maddy Janichek – 2nd, 148 Girl’s Raw

Carly Keesler – 3rd, 148 Girl’s Raw

Kacie Stamm – 3rd, 165 Girl’s Raw

Carson Harwood – 1st, 181 Girl’s Raw

Myah Wenzel – 1st, 198 Girl’s Raw

Alix Johnson – 3rd, 242 Girl’s Raw

Kaelin Nickel – 1st, 132 Girl’s Raw JV

Sofia Alatorre – 2nd, 132 Girl’s Raw JV

Ali Sous – 2nd, 181 Girl’s Raw JV

Marissa Derouso – 3rd, 181 Girl’s Raw JV

Sage McMahon – 1st, 198 Girl’s Raw JV

Arianna Ferguson – 2nd, 220 Girl’s Raw JV

Logan West – 2nd, 114 Boy’s Raw

Liam Rennert – 1st, 123 Boy’s Raw

Nick Elter – 3rd, 132 Boy’s Raw

Jaidyn Thao – 3rd, 148 Boy’s Raw

Carter Zoz – 2nd, 165 Boy’s Raw

Shane Jacoy – 1st, 181 Boy’s Raw

Ezra Strasman – 1st, 198 Boy’s Raw

Sam Scheer – 1st, 242 Boy’s Raw

Gavin Downs – 2nd, 275+ Boy’s Raw

Braeden Ross – 3rd, 275+ Boy’s Raw

Juda Barajas – 1st, 123 Boy’s Raw JV

Samuele Angeli – 2nd, 123 Boy’s Raw JV

Michael Huguet – 1st, 132 Boy’s Raw JV

Ryer Gearhart – 2nd, 132 Boy’s Raw JV

Jesse Gostas – 3rd, 148 Boy’s Raw JV

Kale Babcock – 1st, 165 Boy’s Raw JV

Aaron Chapman – 3rd, 165 Boy’s Raw JV

Collin Herrick – 1st, 198 Boy’s Raw JV

Lance Bart – 3rd, 220 Boy’s Raw JV