Powerlifting competition a success; Brookens and Thomas take fifth
Sports reporter
With more than 300 3A Kansas high school athletes in the Marion High School gym Saturday, there was hardly any walking room.
There was however, plenty of room to lift.
For the fifth year in a row MHS hosted the 3A Kansas state powerlifting competition, this time smoother than ever.
MHS football and track coach Grant Thierolf runs the event, and was pleased with the overall outcome.
With 100 more athletes this year, the program lasted just 45 minutes longer. Thierolf said that was mainly due to the excellent help of local volunteers.
"They all know what they are doing," he said.
Sixteen 3A state records were broken Saturday in the clean, bench press, and squat, including 13 in the men's division.
The most impressive for the crowd was Conway Springs' Darrin Seiwerts' 380-pound lift on the bench press in the 220-lb. weight class.
While no MHS athletes broke any records, junior Michael Brookens and senior Leann Thomas finished fifth overall in their respective classes.
Brookens, Thomas, and all the other athletes were lifting on some new equipment donated by 1964 MHS alum Bob Leppke.
Leppke, who runs a magazine called Pro Maxima Fitness out of Texas, decided to help out his alma mater during the event.
"Bob said he had a truck coming up near here anyway, and that he wanted to give us a little extra this time," Thierolf said.
About 10 years ago, before Thierolf knew who Leppke was, he called his magazine to order some equipment. Leppke answered, and when he found out Thierolf was calling from Marion he decided to work with MHS and has been providing equipment for MHS been ever since.
This year, he wanted to do a little more, and decided to donate new equipment. Leppke's company delivered the weights last month, and when Thierolf returned from a middle school wrestling meet one day, they had been set up in the MHS weight room.
The weights were used during the competition, and Thierolf hopes MHS will continue to host and use the donated equipment for years to come.
