BROWNSTOWN

Packed wall-to-wall in the weight room, three football teams vie for personal bests and bragging rights.

Three lifts can propel the individuals, and team, to the best of their ability.

By the day’s end, when all 90 student athletes clear, it’s the host school that claims top honors.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

Brownstown Central hosted West Washington and Bedford North Lawrence on Tuesday for their annual weightlifting competition.

A total of 30 kids from each team participated in the bench, squat and clean.

Brownstown Central finished on top of the three-team competition.

“The team score is based on your top-11 index,” May said. “Index is how much you lift divided by body weight. We do that because we’re always little guys. We give awards based on total pounds. The top All-Around lifter and index get trophies.”

The program started the competition 20 years ago.

“Football season is over with and then you start lifting,” May said. “You have Christmas break and they you lift all winter. Usually, January and February kind of drags on. We always max out in December, March, May and July. It’s a way for our kids to compete against someone else. It’s also before baseball, track and golf. They get a chance to max out before the spring if they aren’t playing basketball.”

May said that different teams have come to Brownstown Central in the past like Jennings County and Paoli.

Most of the players representing Brownstown Central were in the junior class. Current seniors didn’t participate in the lift-off.

The players get hyped up for the events after months of lifting.

“I like getting stronger with each lift,” Noah Reynolds said. “It’s something I’ve always liked. We lift in class and keep rep records.

“The bigger, faster and stronger you can get the better. It helps with your blocks and the big hits on the field. Pretty much every thing you do helps with strength.”

For Lendon Underwood, a junior who was the overall pounds winner at 1,020, it’s an accumulation of years of hard work.

“It’s exciting, we’ve been the young kids forever,” Underwood said. “Now we’re the top dogs. It’s nice to see how far we’ve come since freshman year.”

Players will continue lifting and maxing-out as they prepare for next season.

May said that the program encourages its players to participate in track and baseball during the spring season.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”2017 BCHS lift contest results” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

TEAM RESULTS-

1. Brownstown Central, 2. Bedford North Lawrence 3. West Washington.

Brownstown Central Results:

Noah Reynolds: 1. Bench index, 2. Squat, 3. Clean, 5. Squat index, 1. Bench, 2. total pounds, 4. Big 3 index.

Lendon Underwood: 1. Total Pounds, 1. Squat, 2. Bench, 2. Clean.

Caleb Bollinger: 2. Big 3 index, 3. Bench index, 3. Clean index, 6. Squat index.

Braeden Walker: 2. Clean index, 4. Squat index, 5. Clean, 7. Big 3 index.

Gus Hogan: 2. Squat index, 3. Big 3 index, 6. Bench index.

Andy Kellermeier: 1. Clean, 4. Clean index.

Jalen Tiemeyer: 6. Squat, 6. Total pounds.

Reece Covert: 1. Clean index.

Payton Barker: 6. Clean index.

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Winter weightlifting winners” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

The following athletes were Brownstown Central’s winter weight lifting winners.

The winners were determined by how much they improved on their power club (3 lifts combined: Squat, Clean and Bench).

Junior class: Noah Reynolds +70 pounds.

Sophomore class: Ethan Bundy +110 pounds.

Freshman class: Eli Brown +90 pounds.

[sc:pullout-text-end]