It’s Thursday and we finally have a break to regroup before our last Junior lifter lifts tonight. What a blessing this trip has been as we sometimes struggle to find the meaning of all this training. Every kid has performed to the best of their ability, and has shown us how much they have progressed over the last year. The two words I can think of immediately are focus and grit. Our kids lifted, volunteered, and coached. They were the most supportive I have seen. This group reminds me of the 2019 and 2007 group that went absolutely bananas every time their teammates took to the platform. Those groups were filled with amazing human beings, and yet, this group stands out in my mind as we had 4 sets of siblings participate, and we had 6 coaches here. This was the first Youth Nationals in about 10 years that we didn't have the help of Ben or Jenny Hwa, so everyone had to step up.
The focus has been improved as the kids realized the stakes and the need to perform possibly better than any other group. With the new format instituted by USAW where all our lifters 25-under could compete, we had a variety of age groups and support. The amount of coaches allowed every child to really have support during their warm ups and really allow themselves to think about their attempts and their process. This focus led to amazingly gritty performances amongst the most experienced lifters, as well as some of the youngests. We couldn’t be prouder!
It started with Team Tonga’s two newest lifters, Meleoni Afu and Veisinia Kaho at 8 am Saturday. They both competed in the 45 kg weight class and went a combined 11/12 with multiple competition PR’s! Kaya Henn hopped in after that with a 5 for 6 performance, winning 2 golds and a silver in the 13-under 45 kg class. Next up was Kayla Doherty in the 49 kg class. She struggled in the snatch only making one but roared back in the clean and jerk making all 3. She ended up sweeping the 3 golds in the 11-u age group. Dylan Lee followed up with medals of her own in the 49 kg 13-under class with a massive 45 kg clean and jerk securing bronze. Lesieli Liongitau had her own personal records as well making all 3 snatches and one good clean and jerk. Despite her last two clean and jerks being called for a small press out, she managed to place 5th!! Rounding out the women were our 2 amazing 64 kg lifters, Alyssa Hines and Gianna VanHofwegen, making 10/12 lifts and winning bronze and gold respectively. Gianna broke all our local weightlifting association records that had been held since 2014. Rounding out our amazing group of young women in the 13-under age group was Mckenna Fua. She went 6/6 and broke multiple personal records. What a way to close out the day.
On the boys side, Kayden Doherty got us started in the 36 kg A class with a 5 for 6 day and bronze medals.
Day 2 highlighted the 14/15 age group. Malianna Liongitau started us off with a perfect 6 for 6 performance! She was at her first national meet and absolutely killed it! 3 personal records in a tough A session. The three boys shined as well, highlighted by Bret Tom who went 5/6 and won overall Gold! He, too, had 3 personal records and barely missed the Jerk at the end of his last Clean. He Snatched 72 and Clean and Jerked 88 and competed well. Elliot Leet and Massimo Shinzato-Barrueto closed out the night with a 5/6 and 6/6 respectively. They both had personal records as well in both lifts! Massimo capped it off with a monster 105 kg Clean and Jerk for the Bronze medal!. I was so proud of these middle school kids and their effort and focus!
Day 3 was stressful. Our 16/17 year old lifters were all in the hunt for medals and two prevailed! Jade Morales did not have her best day, but had a four kilo personal record and swept gold. She snatched extremely well and barely missed an all time personal record at 70 kgs then made a solid 84 kg comp record before getting dizzy at 86. Following yourself is never easy, but she battled! Her 84 kg clean and jerk moved her up 2 spots on the Junior World ranking list. Sienna Lo followed with a gutsy performance as she missed her first two snatches and came back, to make not only her last snatch, but ALL her clean and jerks for the bronze medal. Kina Pouiunga crushed on the 4th day and made all her lifts with massive personal records of 60/81 barely missing out on a medal in the clean and jerk. I couldn’t be happier as Kina took a huge step in her path to compete for Tonga one day!
Cameron Enriquez was our only boy and he performed like a champ! He was on fire on his snatches with a massive pr at 76 kgs and then almost pulled off a monster 92 kg Clean and Jerk but buckled on the recovery. What a day it ended up being, 2 medals and massive personal bests!
Day 4 continued our success with Seth Tom going 6 for 6 and sweeping Golds with a massive 100 kg snatch which highlighted his comeback from his injury in December. Hopefully this will springboard him to another step in his technical improvement. The 25 and under group was off to a good start!
Day 5 may have been the most stressful as we had Diego Puerta, Isaiah Mitchell and Haley Trinh all at different times and all the coaches had left as well as most of the 17-unders lifters. Seth Tom, fresh off his Gold medal performance stepped in and helped coach like an absolute champ.
Diego Puerta started us off with a bang! 6 for 6 at 8 am in the morning. He was calm and focused and incredibly easy to coach. The numbers we picked inched him towards a personal record in the clean and jerk! I was incredibly impressed with his maturity and execution in his lifting. He set the table for Isaiah who had come off of a week of finals at UC San Diego. He needed as much positive mojo heading into the meet. Isaiah lowered his start total and proceeded to make all of his lifts except his last jerk. His meet total will carry him towards AO 2 where he can qualify for next year’s Nationals. The last lifter may have been the most stressful as the competition was as deep as it ever has been. Haley lifted for a spot on the Junior World team with 4 other Junior women totalling 190 plus. She lifted well despite making only 3 lifts. She snatched the second best sequence. We opened a little heavy at 81 kgs and she missed but came and made it along with 83. She missed her opener in the clean and jerk at 108 but then locked up the bronze with her second at 108. We went for silver at 112 but came up short. I am so proud of her effort during her freshman year at UCLA and can’t wait for her to lift at AO 2.
Our last day was Thursday with our last lifter, Amanda Robles. After having been there for six days, coaching, loading and learning, my biggest fear was that the energy wouldn’t be there for me as a coach. However, with the help of Haley, we mustered the emotional energy to guide Amanda through her session. Amanda looked great in both warm ups, snatch, and clean and jerk. In the snatch, she opened up for the winning lift at 94 kg and uncharacteristically missed behind. She followed up with a make for the win and then the bar fell slightly short on her last. In the clean and jerk, there was a little less drama. She made her first, and then missed her next two. We were pushing the weights because she felt good, but due to her summer school schedule etc, she had a tough few weeks of training. She won but left unsatisfied. She will come back and be strong!
I hope to see all of these lifters along with many more at the AO2!