Marble Falls powerlifting to host meet
CAPTION: Marble Falls powerlifting head coach Karl “Beef” Bielfeldt and his athletes will welcome many teams for their Stronger Things meet Saturday on the high school campus. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School powerlifting program is hosting its Stronger Things invitational at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, in the Mustang gym on the high school campus.
At least nine teams are competing, including Bartlett, Blanco, Elgin and Junction. Twelve lifters contribute to their team’s overall score.
“We have a pretty wide swatch of both classifications,” Marble Falls head coach Karl “Beef” Bielfeldt said. “We’re trying to keep everybody efficient and clean and not make it too long. There’s both equipped and unequipped divisions in both boys and girls. It’s going to be a little interesting as far as you have those lifters mixed in. So you’ll have a handful of lifters that aren’t wearing equipment and are just lifting raw. And so for purists, we really like that, because you’re actually seeing how strong the kid actually is without any kind of aids from a bench shirt or a squat suit.”
When asked how many weight divisions will be offered at the meet, the coach said “all of them.”
“And it just kind of depends on what lifters we have. And so that’s everywhere,” he said. “(We’ll offer) from the 114s, which is the lightest, and goes all the way up to 308s or super heavyweights. If you (weigh) over 310 (pounds), you’re in the super heavies.”
The challenge is balancing out the lifters in each weight class and coaches believing one weight class may score better than the others.
“Limiting it to 12 lifters per team, you have a smattering,” Bielfeldt said. “You’re never going to have one for each. I know our 198s, we have two lifters who are really good. As I start adding in other lifters, we’ll see what the best team looks like.”
The Mustangs are entering this meet with confidence after winning the Countdown City Liftoff hosted by Comal Pieper Jan. 10.
The coach is optimistic about this season. After all, all three lifters who advanced to the Class 4A state meet a year ago — twins Daniel and David Dominguez and Arnulfo Salazar — are back and he believes more athletes will join the program.
“We’re going to have a good season ahead of us,” he said. “I’m looking forward to some of our girls stepping up and trying to see if I can add some along the way. I think we should still end up with three going to regionals. And I think we’ll have a bigger contingent of the guys this year. We still have some youth left on the guys’ side as well. So looking forward to a good season.”
