Comanche Student Qualifies for State Championships
Aaliyah Lewis, a senior from Walters High School, placed third in regionals and qualified for powerlifting state championships, which took place on Monday, March 6, in Durant, Oklahoma, where she placed 10th.
“It was fun. I feel like the intensity wasn't there as much as last year because I was just still so new to it; I knew that I wasn't going to place as high, but this year I had such high hopes and I was like, ‘You know what, I'm going to go do this. I'm going to lift this weight and I hope to place,’” she said. Because I just wanted a place to prove that I can do it. I can lift the weight.
It's not that heavy.”
Lewis said the team has grown since the start of last year.
“I started out by myself last year, but then I had more come in and this year we even got even more,” she said.“I think we had about 18, 20 girls this year between just high school…but there was a lot more girls this year…five of us, I believe, went to state.”
She said the team was the highlight of her high school career.
“Watching the team grow, watching the team bond…the support that comes out from everyone…if you walk into one of those lifts meets and you just hear everyone scream for each other, like it's not ‘Oh, we're going after this one girl,’ ‘We're not going to yell for her,’
‘Oh, we're not going to yell for them,’ but it's like everyone has just come together,” Lewis said. “It's just so, I don't even know the right words, but it's just amazing how everyone come together and be like that.”
She said her successes include not only higher numbers but also creating a girls’ team.
“But just being able to encourage girls like, ‘Hey, lifting, maybe it was for boys, but let's do it for us too now,’” Lewis said.
As for coaching in the future…
“I did think about coaching, but I also have high hopes to become a dermatologist and that is going to take up a lot of time, I believe,” she said. “But if there was an opportunity for me to come back and maybe even just help out or give tips or even just come back and support them a couple times…I would definitely come back and watch.”
Lewis has signed a cheer and stunts scholarship to Oklahoma City University (OCU) and is also looking into adding a powerlifting scholarship.
“I am actually right now practicing the types of lifts that I would have to do at college and I am planning on talking to the coach there, but they do a little bit different, more like Olympic slash CrossFit kind of lifts instead of just deadlift, squat and bench, so it is a little different for me and I'm practicing it, so I am going to talk to him about it and we'll see how it goes, but I'm not exactly sure yet,” she said.
Lewis will begin OCU cheer training in April.
