By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON
The North Beach Jr./Sr. High School’s Powerlifting team dominated about 200 other competitors from across the country on Saturday to win the overall AAU National Championship meet in Tacoma.
The North Beach team adds the title to its third girls’ team championship, won at the state meet May 5 in Lacey.
All 10 North Beach girls and both boys who qualified for the Nationals earned gold medals in their weight classes.
Four girls collected a total of 12 national overall records covering all age classes, and all qualified for the World Championships in September in Laughlin, NV.
Volunteer coach Ric Dycus noted that they did it all without star Natasha Fruh, who has already qualified for World. Fruh instead competed in the state class 2B girls track meet in Cheney, where she finished second in shot put.
Dycus said by the end of the squats part of the meet, about a third of the way through the entire event, the Hyaks could see that they were in a position to win the overall team national champions’ crown.
“Their confidence kept building,” he said, and they started enjoying something they never imagined: the crowd and their competitors, including some of the biggest national names in the Powerlifting sport, started cheering on the kids from North Beach.
The following are the Hyaks team participants, their weight classes, and the gold medal winning records they now hold:
• Skyler Duncan, 97 lbs., 3 US records and overall gold in push-pull (dead lift and bench press only);.
• Taylor Eang, 148 lbs., US record in dead lift.
• Maryah Winser, 148 lbs., gold age 14-15.
• Lettie Carcaise, 165 lbs., gold 16-17;.
• Maria Van Horn, 181 lbs., 3 overall (all ages) US records in squat, dead lift and total.
• Alexis Potter, 181 lbs., gold 16-17; Arianna Salmond, 220 lbs., 4 overall US records in squat, dead lift, bench press and total.
• Maggie McPherson, 220+ lbs., 4 overall US records in squat, dead lift, bench press and total.
• Jared Wilkerson, 123 lbs., gold 14-15;.
• Patrick Heyd, 132 lbs., gold 18-19.
