Small town Cannon Falls sent eighteen of its very own to the state weightlifting tournament. Filling the gym were fans who traveled across the state to come cheer on their lifters. Unsurprisingly, Cannon Falls fans filled almost a fourth of the bleachers; however their cheers and applause consumed the capacity of the facility. This applause was highly justified since eight of Cannon’s weightlifters took first, including Riley Meyers, Tatum Pickar, Chase Schaefer, Taran Pickar, Yogi Otto, Mason Hofstedt, and Gabe Hall. Also placing high in their weight class were Brodie Hansen and Carson Chytracek who both took second, seizing third place were Kallan Wenborg and Drew Otte. Nathan Stein, Trenton Matthies, Broderick Ulrich, Tyler Chytracek, Nicolas Lorentz, and Andrew Egge successfully made it to state, a feat in itself,

and competed with great stamina. After a prolonged day entwined with stress, triumph, and excitement, the meet lasted a total of thirteen hours. Finally exiting the building at 8:00 p.m., the Cannon Falls weightlifting team celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings, because they are the new JV state champions and the second runner up varsity team.

Ending the season with such phenomenal results makes it even harder to let it go, especially for senior captain Nicolas Lorentz who claimed, “…I will miss the coaches and all the lifters I grew up lifting with!” However, after forty seven weeks of 6:00 morning practices a break is quite deserved for these driven athletes. With a minimum of four practices a week the lifters had approximately two 251 hours of practice, and throughout those hours about 3,384 squats were performed by each team member. Looking back to those abiding weeks Mason Hofstedt remembers his favorite moment of the season, “When Gabe (Hall) cleaned 131 kg at state, making the top-all-time-board.” Cannon Falls weightlifters are now waiting and training for School Age Nationals, which is taking place in Bloomington, Minnesota, on June 26th-28th.