Weights clanged on the floor as the girls warm up to begin their lifts on Nov. 17, before the meet against Anclote. They compete with other girls in their weight class as they do snatches, then bench presses, and lastly clean and jerk. Continuing from their first meet on Nov. 3, against Gulf, they will have a total of 10 meets this season. As of Nov. 18, they have won all three of their meets. 

The team does conditioning every day of the week, but each member only needs to attend four days. During practice they work on lifting their max weight, as well as work on their cardio some days. 

“Each day [Coach Lee] has a different workout for us. Sometimes she’ll make us max out, which is getting the best we can on our bench and snatch a clean and jerk. But other times she’ll have us do lighter work to work up to it so we can get stronger but also push ourselves harder,” Alexis Dinicola (‘23) said. 

The team gained a lot of new lifters since last season and works on improving their lifts. 

“It’s been really good. Most of the meets we’ve won so far; they haven’t been that hard. There’s a lot of girls on our team this year so we’ve gotten better, and we have a new coach this year so she’s really pushing us hard to get better in all of our lifts,” Dinicola said. 

Alyssa Barcz (‘25), in her first year on the team spends time outside of school to get better. 

“I go to the gym outside of school and do weightlifting three days a week, and then school practice every day after school,” Barcz said. 

Barcz sometimes feels anxious before some of the team meets. 

“Before the meet for the first week, I was really nervous all day and, the night before I couldn’t sleep, then at the meet, I was really nervous. But then after it was good. On the last one I wasn’t worried at all during the day and then right when it came time then I got worried,” Barcz said. 

Emily Gonzalez (‘24) does little training exercises and goes on runs to practice for weightlifting, she feels lots of different emotions at every meet. 

“During my last meet, I kind of just get sad because it’s like the seniors are leaving and everything’s changing in a way but also happy at the same time because I accomplished a lot this season. I’ve gotten stronger, I’ve made a ton of friends,” Gonzalez said. 

On Nov. 10, Dinicola lifted 115 on bench, and 120 for clean and jerk at the meet. Barcz hit 110 on bench, and 140 for clean and jerk. Gonzalez raised 70 for bench, and 105 for clean and jerk. At this meet every girl that could lift full strength hit a personal record (PR) in one or more of their lifts. Abigail Jonas (‘22) also broke the school record with a bench press of 150, and clean and jerk of 185 in the 199-weight class. 

Girls Weightlifting will have their next meet on Jan 8 at River Ridge High School.