LSUS to host weightlifting national championships
08/08/06

Five LSUS students will be among the 134 athletes expected to compete in the 2006 USA Weightlifting National Championships and World Team qualifier Friday through Sunday (Aug. 11-13) hosted by the LSUS USA Weightlifting Development Center. The events, which will be held in the LSUS Health & Physical Education Building, are free and open to the public.

Kendrick Farris, an LSUS junior and C. E. Byrd High School graduate, leads the LSUS competitors. Farris, an 85kg lifter, was a member of the 2003 Junior Pan American Team and the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Junior World Teams. He has the best total this year of any 85kg lifter entered in this week’s meet and has the inside track to make the USA team for the 2006 World Championships Sept. 29 – Oct. 7 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

LSUS junior Monica Davis, a 75+kg lifter who graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Shreveport, was a member of the 2003 and 2005 Junior Pan Am team. Michelle Sicard, a 48kg sophomore lifter, is a Loyola College Prep graduate. She was also a member of the 2005 Junior Pan Am team.

Rounding out the LSUS contingent in the championships are Jason Brown, a 77kg sophomore from Daytona Beach, Fla., who is a member of the 2006 Junior World team, and freshman Aaron Adams, a 62kg lifter from Vineland, N.J. Adams was a member of the 2005 Junior Pan Am team and joins Farris and Brown on the 2006 Junior World Team. Like Farris, Adams has the best total this year of any 62kg lifter entered in the championships.

All five LSUS lifter train under Dr. Kyle Pierce, an LSUS associate professor of kinesiology and health science and director of the LSUS USA Weightlifting Development Center. Pierce was recently named by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the recipient of the prestigious 2005 James E. “Doc” Counsilman Science in Coaching Award. Named for the legendary Indiana University swimming coach and instituted by the USOC in 2003, the Counsilman Award honors coaches who conduct and use research along with developing innovative training methods. Pierce, who is widely published and sought after internationally to make presentations on sports science, was a finalist for the 2004 Counsilman Award.

Pierce, considered to be among the top weightlifting coaches in the world, and the LSUS USA Weightlifting Development Center are no strangers to hosting competitions. The university has staged 13 national championships and four international championships dating back to 1991.

The tentative time schedule of competition, as of Monday (Aug. 7), is as follows:

FRIDAY August 11, 2006

 SESSION GENDER CATEGORY Q-TOTAL # Athletes WEIGH IN LIFT

1 WOMEN 48 KG 105 KG 9 8:00 AM 10:00 AM

2 MEN 56 KG/62 KG 172/192 KG 13 (5 & 8) 10:00 AM NOON

3 WOMEN 53 KG 122 KG 11 NOON 2:00 PM

4 WOMEN 58 KG 137 KG 11 2:00 PM 4:00 PM

5 MEN 69 KG 220 KG 8 4:00 PM 6:00 PM

6 WOMEN 63 KG 145 KG 7 5:30 PM 7:30 PM

 SATURDAY August 12, 2006

7 MEN 77 B & 247 KG 8 (250 kg & below) 8:00 AM 10:00 AM
...MEN 85 B KG 270 KG 3 (275 kg & below)

8 MEN 77 KG A 247 KG 8 (257 kg & above) 10:00 AM NOON

9 WOMEN 69 KG 150 KG 11 NOON 2:00 PM

10 MEN 85 A KG & 270 KG 7 2:00 PM 4:00 PM
..... MEN 94 KG 290 KG 5

SUNDAY August 13, 2006

11 WOMEN 75 KG 160 KG 6 8:00 AM 10:00 AM

12 MEN 105 KG 295 KG 6 10:00 AM NOON

13 WOMEN 75+ KG 167 KG 11 NOON 2:00 PM

14 MEN 105+ KG 300 KG 10 2:00 PM 4:00 PM