Girls Weightlifting

GIRLS VARSITY WEIGHTLIFTING INTRODUCES NEW FORMAT FOR MEETS

Article by Jake Raffa Photo by Mateo Membreno

Adapting in the face of a challenge is a necessity in this COVID-19 plagued world. For a sport requiring players to lift inside, packed together in a small room, girls varsity weightlifting is the perfect environment for an outbreak. In order to minimize exposure, the season this year will be virtual.

“We compete in the bench press and the clean and jerk,” girls varsity weightlifting coach Harry Meyers said. “At meets this year the girls will do their lifts, and we might get a video for the parents to watch.”

Although referred to as “virtual” meets, the only truly “virtual” element would be the video for parents to watch. Meet scoring will still proceed as normal, with the biggest lifts for each weight class scoring the most points. However, instead of having all the teams competing in the same place, each team will lift in their own weight room. Then, they will record their own scores, and coaches will compare their scores with other schools once a week, trusting that each coach is telling the truth about the scoring.

Senior leader Clara Dowdy is returning for her fourth and final season as a varsity weightlifter. Dowdy prefers being able to lift in her own weight room, as she is much more familiar with the equipment. But she notices a downside to these virtual meets as well.

“Not having anyone [in person] to compare my lifts to will make meets harder,” Dowdy said. “I’m a very competitive person, and I like seeing my competition in person to push me to success.”

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place, coaches have to alternate which girls are competing each day. With the team consisting of slightly more than 60 lifters, this creates a unique issue.

“We can only have 20 to 25 girls competing in one day, but the most important thing is trying to get everyone qualified for districts,” Meyers said. “Nowadays, you could find out half your team has to quarantine right before districts, so you really just never know.”

As of now, the girls are competing in the Citrus League, but only Windermere and Bishop Moore have teams. Additionally, Bishop Moore’s team isn’t affiliated with the school, so they won’t qualify for the postseason. Under the new virtual format, the girls could possibly lift against teams outside the Citrus League, but this is still up for discussion.

One potential issue of these virtual meets is cheating. For instance, as the coaches simply compare notes of each girls’ lifts, it becomes almost entirely merit-based. Cheating could potentially spike, with each team in charge of judging its own lifters, and the ability for each coach to lie about their best lifts. However, Coach Meyers doesn’t believe this will be a problem.

“We’re not too concerned that other teams might be cheating,” Meyers said. “You can lie all you want [in the regular season], but once you get to districts, which will be in person, you have to do the lifts. The only issue you start to run into is how strict your judges are on your kids, compared to a live district meet with real judging.”

The regular season meets aren’t the only thing that’s been impacted; the girls have to change the way they practice as well.

“Right now, we can only have 18 lifters in at a time, two at each station, but theoretically we could have 27 lifters, three at each station,” Meyers said. “The girls have to alternate which days they come to practice, so we even added a Saturday practice to fit everyone in.”

Junior weightlifter Alexia Steinberg sees an upside to this new format.

“I like practices this year more than last year,” Steinberg said. “The weight room isn’t as full, and I have more space to work out.”

Despite all the changes, Meyers believes that the team is ready for a successful season.

“I don’t like talking about winning and results before a season, but I think we have a good chance of winning districts and can genuinely compete in regionals, maybe even winning a regional championship,” Meyers said.

BOYS CROSS COUNTRY FINISHES STRONG

Article by Boaz Kim Photo by Ella Craghill

As he runs through the finish line, junior Nick Carpenter glances at the race time: 16 minutes and 40 seconds. Out of breath from running one of his fastest times, Carpenter is crowned the boys Citrus League champion. All the hard work the team has put in this season has paid off.

The boys cross country team had a (regular season record) regular-season record. The Citrus League, which includes Trinity Prep, Windermere Prep, TFA, Lake Highland Prep, Bishop Moore and Montverde Academy was no match for the boys, led by boys Citrus League Champion Nick Carpenter and their coach, Sara Dowdy.

The boys have been working even before the season started so they could ensure their successful run in the postseason.

“I trained consistently over the summer,” Carpenter said. “A few of the cross country boys even went up to North Carolina for two weeks to train. I actually joined a local road bike group and rode with them a few times to get in shape and be ready for the season.”

The boys’ practices during the seasons also helped them improve their running.

“The practices were always under the hot sun, so it was not easy,” sophomore Koray Tekin said. “Coach Dowdy pushed us to get better and in the end it helped us improve.”

The biggest challenge this year was not getting faster but instead, the challenges that came from COVID 19.

“The number of team qualifiers was cut in half, masks were required for practices and meets, meets were started in waves, only limited spectators were allowed at our meets, some of our runners were quarantined and our traditional team dinners and annual pre-district team lunch was cancelled,” varsity cross country head coach Sara Dowdy said. “All of these really hurt the team bonding aspect of our season but we were able to get through it and still have a memorable year.”

The boys made it to the district meet, where Carpenter left his competition in the dust and became the Citrus League champion.

“It felt great because it showed me that my work had paid off,” Carpenter said. “It was also a good feeling to beat our local rivals in the Citrus League.”

Carpenter has since been looking for recruitments. He says he has emailed a lot of coaches and colleges and has gotten in contact with the University of South Carolina and the Naval Academy.

“It is good to know that colleges are interested in me because it motivates me to keep working and to get better,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter gets high praise from his coaches and teammates for his hard work and determination.

“Nick Carpenter is with no doubt, the top runner in the Citrus League, and one of the best runners in the state in 2A,” Dowdy said. “He has been focused and motivated all season. His PR this season is 15:54. To break 16:00 in the 5K is a huge accomplishment, and to do that his junior year is remarkable. He is a beautiful runner.”

Due to COVID 19, it has been hard for all athletes to get noticed by college programs. Because of this, they have had to work even harder in their sport to be recruited. Sports like cross country have especially been impacted.

“It definitely puts a question mark on many of these programs because the cross country and track teams are not considered as important as other sports, so many of the colleges are dropping the program for the time being,” Carpenter said.

However, Carpenter says he is still optimistic about his future and will continue to strive to become better.

The boys ended up placing 9th at states and Carpenter had a podium finish, finishing in 7th place. “I am very proud of the team this year because we all worked so hard to get to where we got and I am already looking forward to next year,” Carpenter said.