MORENCI — Morenci sophomore powerlifter Gracie Snead is stacking more than just weight plates — she’s stacking championships.
Most recently she achieved the title of JV National Champion, a feat that, until recently, she didn’t know was a possibility.
“I didn’t even know I could qualify for it,” she said. “I thought I had to get a membership for the other federation and compete at one of their meets.”
A couple of weeks after the state meet, Levi Hoffman, a former Morenci powerlifter now with Defiance College, had seen Snead’s performance and called her mom to give them the good news. A new rule put in place this year allowed competitors to qualify for nationals at the MHSPLA as long as they hit the total weight standard, which Snead did.
The late notice left only 10 days for Snead to join as a member of that federation, pay the late registration, and get all the proper equipment shipped to her in order to compete at nationals in Appleton, Wisconsin. None of these distractions fazed Snead as she went on to win the title and improve upon her state meet total from a few weeks earlier.
Prior to the national meet, Snead won the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association’s JV state meet.
She broke the state record in her weight class for squat (310 lbs.), deadlift (380 lbs.) and total weight of 830 lbs. Not bad considering just three years earlier she was a member of the seventh-grade girls basketball team and hadn’t considered powerlifting for her sport.
But during that basketball season, powerlifting started to pique her interest. She saw some of her friends and classmates competing and doing well. And by the time the eighth-grade basketball season rolled around, she was ready to make a change.
“I wasn’t really feeling basketball anymore,” she said. “I knew it wasn’t really for me.” The rest, as they say, is history.
“At my first eighth-grade meet I got second place and I got to go to state from that,” Snead recalled of her first powerlifting competition.
Competitors must complete at least one legal lift for each of the three events (bench press, squat and deadlift) or else they are disqualified. Their individual lifts are then added together for a total weight that determines their place.
Powerlifting has different weight classes for competitors, and distinctions like JV or varsity being based on age as opposed to talent. As you move up into more serious competitions there are also different federations and associations, each with their own regulations and guidelines.
And while winning championships and setting records are incredible achievements, the overall atmosphere and powerlifting community seem to hold a special place in Snead’s heart.
“It’s just really nice — it’s a nice environment,” she said. “It seems less competitive against each other, it’s more like you make friendships there and you try to lift each other up.”