Girls from Bowie and Nocona competed at the regional powerlifting tournament on Friday and Saturday at Bells High School hoping to punch their tickets to the state meet.
In the end two lifters from Bowie, Kinley Russell and Jordan Vaught, are both making return trips to the state meet after winning their weight classes.
Russell competed in the 148 class and put up a season high total of 800 total pounds, improving by 35 pounds from her previous high this year. It was how much she won by compared to second place as she qualified for state for the second straight season.
Vaught competed in the 242 class. Her 930 pound total was also a season high, improving by 60 pounds. She out lifted second place by five pounds.
Coach Quinn Wilson was happy for his two top lifters who have put in the work this season.
“I am beyond proud of them,” Wilson said. “This was the expectation going in for them. Our goal this year was to automatically qualify for state, and then do their best after that, and that led to them both to getting first place. They worked their tails off in the weight room and it showed on their totals. They were the first girls in and the last ones to leave every day and now they are looking to increase their lifts at state. We are right back to work with our eyes on state medals.”
Their teammates were not as lucky. Alleson Aguirre and Trently Brewer both finished in eighth place in their weight classes though both also set season highs. Aguirre also competed in the 148 class and finished with a 645 pound total. Brewer competed in the 123 class and lifted 535 total pounds.
Mira Anderson competed in th1 165 class, completed her squat at 270 pounds before missing on bench and busting out, or not completing the rest of her lifts.
Still, with two first place medalists, Bowie finished in fifth place out of 14 teams at regionals.
For Nocona, the team had no state qualifiers though three of the team’s five lifters finished in the top five in their weight classes.
Savannah Wade finished third in the 123 class with a total of 600 pounds. She was 45 pounds behind second place.
Caris Johnson finished in fourth place in the 132 class, lifting 595 total pounds which was 15 pounds better than her previous best this season.
Jacie Pirkey finished in fifth place in the 148 class as she lifted 625 total pounds. Yazmin Ibarra missed out on scoring points as she finished in sixth place in the 132 class with a total of 525 pounds.
Kaitlyn Tiffner, who was a state qualifier last year in the 97 class, unfortunately did not complete a lift and busted out.

To see results for all of the lifters from Bowie and Nocona, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.