Had it been an autumn Friday night, Deer Lakes senior Brian Palmiere and Ford City junior Jake Klingensmith -- both starters for their football teams -- likely would not have shared smiles and congratulatory praise with each other after a few hours of competition.
But Saturday's Alle-Kiski Valley High School Powerlifting Meet at Ford City High School was far from a football game. Palmiere and Klingensmith, the top lifters in the meet after adjustments to account for body weight, opted to embrace the fraternal spirit of the event rather than focus on who won and who fell just short.
Make no mistake: Klingensmith, weighing in at 203 pounds, cared that he finished second to Palmiere, who weighed about 18 pounds less.
"Second ain't first," he grumbled when a teammate patted him on the back about his achievement in a competition that included almost 60 participants.
However, Klingensmith, like so many of the lifters, understood that powerlifting is as much about pushing one's self as it is about meet points. He respected Palmiere's power in both the deadlift and the bench press, and he accepted his second-place finish as the partial product of his two missed attempts to bench 305 pounds.
"Go big or go home," was the attitude of almost all the boys in the high school gymnasium. And while Klingensmith, who successfully benched 285 pounds and deadlifted 500 pounds, left a bit unhappy with his performance, a few of his Ford City teammates departed after showings they considered surprising.
Senior Cody Gispanski, for example, set a new meet record in the 148.75-pound weight class with a 400-pound dead lift. The previous mark was 390 pounds.
"I got more than I expected to get," he said. "I didn't have any idea what the record was, so I went over to Shawn (Klingensmith, who managed the results table) after my second lift and asked him what it was. He told me to go for it."
Senior Brandon Fulton deadlifted 550 pounds for the first time. Fulton, who weighed in at 286 pounds, attempted to break the super heavyweight class record of 600 pounds with a lift of 605, but his effort stalled as he brought the bar to knee level.
"I got (550) easy, so I figured I might as well go for the record," Fulton said.
And junior Drew Waltenbaugh, who weighed in at 191 pounds, deadlifted more than 400 pounds for the first time when he successfully pulled 425. Waltenbaugh came close to lifting 470 pounds during his final attempt.
The opportunity to set personal bests appealed to more than Ford City boys, of course. Fred Laird, an Elderton junior who plays for West Shamokin, surpassed his previous mark in the bench press (225 pounds to 245) and in the deadlift (395 pounds to 450).
Laird's commitment to lifting centers around his football career. But during so many of those days in the weight room with teammates, he thinks of the center stage at the Ford City meet.
"It's a great atmosphere," Laird said. "This is definitely always on my mind."
Additional Information:Top performances
Listed below are the top five bench press and deadlift performances (after adjustments to account for body weight):
Bench press
Name School Body weight Weight lifted
Brian Palmiere Deer Lakes 185 355
Nicholas Insko Kiski Area 195 335
Jud Toth Kittanning 164 265
Dan Zamarripa Apollo-Ridge 176 265
Jake Klingensmith Ford City 203 285
Deadlift
Name School Body weight Weight lifted
Sean Wasco Knoch 200 525
Brian Palmiere Deer Lakes 185 500
Jake Klingensmith Ford City 203 500
Brandon Fulton Ford City 286 550
Kol Lazaroff Kittanning 141 385
