Powerlifting meets have a certain... aura. Sweaty guys and girls waiting around for their next lift, hundreds of jabbering parents and friends packed into the bleachers, the clangs of weights being pulled on and off the bar by a bunch of monster sized dudes, sweat and chalk dust staining the floor while nervousness and bravado fill the air. For GHS Senior Zebadiah Johnson, this place is home.
Johnson got into powerlifting soon after he moved to Garretson, influenced by 2014 GHS graduate Bryce Wolmann. It was a spur of the moment deci- sion, he hadn’t previously seriously considered lifting and only did it because he didn’t have any other spring sports plans. He was unable to lift his sophomore year due to an injury, but hopped back on it last year and competed in state as a junior. He got 5th at state that year.
He’s been pretty successful this year, taking home 2nd place overall at his first meet of the sea- son in January and in February, he competed in the state meet in Brandon.
He qualified for nationals a few days before state.
“To qualify for nationals, I had to lift a certain weight in a USAPL sanctioned meet. For my weight class, I had to lift 472.5 kilograms(1041.7 lbs),” stated Johnson. “It was very easy for me to hit these weights and qualify.”
USAPL High School Nationals were held in Appleton Wisconsin over the course of four days, March 22nd-26th. Junior Varsity competed the first two days. Johnson competed on the third day. Each day was divided into several sessions, and each session had two flights per platform. Johnson’s session took about three hours, and he only had 10 minutes between each lift.
“I did well at nationals, but not as well as I could have. I underperformed on squat, but my other two lifts were pretty good,” commented Johnson.
He squatted 205 kgs (about 451 lbs), benched 137.5 kgs (about 303 lbs), and deadlifted 197.5 kgs (about 435 lbs).
“My all time personal [squat] record is 505; so that lift definitely could have gone better,” he said. “Overall, I went 6/9 on my lifts and had a ton of fun.”
Nationals was an equipped meet, which means that all participants wore squat suits that help them lift more. Because of this, his state lifting totals can’t really be compared.
He ended up taking home 9th, which makes him among the top ten strongest in his weight class in the entire nation.
“I will continue to train and compete in powerlifting as long as I can,” he said. “Next year I plan to compete on the collegiate or open level,or a little more distant future, I hope to someday become a national champion.”
