By By Chandler Myers
Escambia Academy’s weightlifting team pumped iron last week and finished third in the AISA State Weightlifting Competition.
The Cougars finished the meet with two champions, three second-place finishers, two third-place competitors and four broken records.
Cougars head coach Heath Gibson said he was proud of the effort given in the meet.
Cougars’ senior Seth Lassiter and junior Jon Dean each won championships in their respective weight classes.
Lassiter finished first in the 132-pound class with a point total of 854.157, which was the highest point total of all weight classes. He also broke three AISA state records. He set new records in the dead lift, bench press and total weight lifted.
Lassiter’s dead lift was 420 pounds, his bench press was 260 pounds and his total weight was 1,010 pounds.
Lassiter said he was proud of the outcome at the meet. He added that he worked extremely hard to get where he is with his strength.
Dean won the 165-pound weight class finishing with a point total of 674.352, which was 50 points ahead of runner-up Mason Hinton of Southern Academy.
Dean said that winning his weight class was a great accomplishment that fits in with his workout regimen.
The other record broken by a Cougars weightlifter came on the female side of the meet and was only held for about 10 minutes.
Cougars senior Malori McGhee finished seventh in the 125-pound weight class, and broke the female dead lift record with a lift of 230 pounds. Her record was short-lived as it was broken by Stephanie Crocker of Southern Academy.
McGhee said she was excited and caught off guard by her record breaking lift.
Other Cougars who placed in the meet included Nick Carlin (2nd place- 232-class), Blake Kirk (2nd 198-class), Alan Ash (2nd 132-class), Will Hendrix (3rd 198-class), Dustin Wilson (3rd 132-class) and Wade Matthews (7th 123-class).