LA GRANDE — The La Grande Middle School Wildcat Lifting Club is pushing the limits and setting personal bests.

La Grande Middle School students on Saturday, March 12, competed admirably in their winter weightlifting event for the new lifting club. The group encourages middle school students of all sizes and skill levels to learn weightlifting techniques, while creating a camaraderie between teammates.

“Everyone on the team is super supportive,” eighth-grader Jillian Nelson said. “Even if you don’t get it, they still cheer you on.”

La Grande Middle School history teacher Nico Veloz Espinola started the Wildcat Lifting Club this school year. A student-teacher through Eastern Oregon University, Veloz Espinola saw an opportunity for a competitive lifting group at the middle school.

“When I got here I saw that they had lifting equipment, but no lifting going on,” Veloz Espinola said.

Veloz Espinola, a powerlifter himself, has competed in lifting events and felt a desire to help young athletes learn the ropes of the sport.

“I thought it would be a really cool opportunity to teach these kids some general fitness,” he said. “With my experience with competitions, we can take that general fitness and make it a little competitive and a little more than just a workout group.”

Boys and girls compete side-by-side through in-house competitions at the La Grande Middle School gymnasium, using a scoring system that compiles weight, age and gender. The system, which is called a DOTS score, allows individuals of different size to compete against each other in a way that takes into account each individual performance.

The club saw about 20 athletes compete in the fall, with about 15 taking part in the winter and spring. For eighth-grader Mattie Wolcott, the weightlifting program was an opportunity to participate in sports during the winter. After competing in cross-country in the fall, she wanted to do a sport other than basketball or wrestling.

“I decided to do weight training instead,” Wolcott said. “I’ve done some weight training with my dad and joined because my friends were doing it too.”

For Nelson, the lifting club presented an opportunity to compete in a sport she had always been interested in.

“I don’t really do sports that anybody else does, besides volleyball,” Nelson said. “I’ve wanted to do weightlifting for a long time, so once I heard about it I was really excited to join.”

Nelson also noted that the club picked up momentum as students began to build interest in competing for the lifting club under Veloz Espinola.

“I think at first people were sketchy about it because it’s never been a thing,” Nelson said. “Once people started doing it and talking about it, we got a lot of people interested. It feels so good.”

In the girls weightlifting competition on March 12, Wolcott earned a top DOTS score of 264.55. Nelson was second at 247.66, and Ella Johnson took home third place with a DOTS score of 219.65.

“You feel really nervous, right up until you lift,” Wolcott said. “Right after you feel okay but then you get really nervous again for your next lift. You just have to be really confident in yourself.”

On the boys side, Quinton Smith earned first place with a DOTS score of 214.75. Eddy Orton placed second with a score of 192.56, while Kyler Myer was third at 150.87.

In front of teammates and a crowd of parents in the gymnasium, the athletes put all their effort into reaching their lift goals.

“It takes a lot of mental focus, but when you’re up there it kind of just goes away,” Nelson said. “I think it’s just a mental game. Even if you don’t get it, it’s about your mentality. I sometimes struggle with that, so I just try to tell myself that I’m going to improve either way.”

This spring, the Wildcat Lifting Club is set to compete against other teams in Ontario, through a regional tournament hosted by the United States Powerlifting Association.

In just the first year of the program, the LMS lifting club is hoping to continue meeting goals and drawing in new athletes.

“I really hope that we still get to have it next year,” Wolcott said. “Our coach is only a student teacher, but I really hope he’ll be able to keep the program going and that more people will join.”