Harvard – The 2026 Class D High School State Powerlifting Championships were held at Harvard High School this past Saturday, March 21st. It featured 130 lifters representing the top Class D powerlifting schools in the state. Schools represented were Boyd County, Bruning-Davenport-Shickley, Centura, Fullerton, Grand Island Lutheran, Harvard, Johnson-Brock, Kenesaw, Niobrara-Verdigre, Red Cloud, Silver Lake, Stanton, and Summerland. The Niobrara-Verdigre Cougars team came home Class D state champs!
All Cougar lifters had impressive performances with many personal bests set again. Special congratulations goes to Melody Bonham who was crowned the outstanding female lifter of the meet by strength index (total lifted divided by body weight)!
Many lifters again moved up to new weight clubs highlighted by Beckett Wessendorf, who now joins Jacob Motacek in the 1000 lb club! Congratulations to all lifters and teams on a fine performance. Thank you for your outstanding behavior while representing our schools and for showing a lot of class towards all competitors. Thank you also for your respect shown towards all meet officials and for helping Harvard High School set up for the meet & clean everything up after the meet. Everyone appreciates it!
Niobrara-Verdigre had a total of 10 individual high school state champions and 6 individual jr. high state champions in their respective weight classes! Two earned silver medals; two earned bronze; three earned fourth place medals; four earned fifth place medals; and two finished in sixth place. Congratulations to all individual lifters. You are all to be commended for your high ranking in the state meet!
Boys individual state champions were Charles Frame (114 lb class), Levi Hoferer (123 lb class), and Alex Motacek (148 lb class). Boys bronze medalist was Jacob Motacek (181 lb class). Other boys medalists were Josiah Heerdegen (4th-132 lb class), Lennix Chavez (4th– 148 lb class), Tiernan Bird (5th – 148 lb class), Zack Bolling (5th – 165 lb class), Izaak Vakoc (5th – 198 lb class), and Praeson Klug (5th– 275+ lb class). Boys who just missed out on medaling were Gage Vesely (165 lb class), Logan Collingsworth (181 lb class), Austin Sharp (181 lb class), and Beckett Wessendorf (220 lb class) in extremely deep weight classes.
Girls individual state champions were Sydney Kumm (105 lb class), Melody Bonham (114 lb class), Kaydence Jones (123 lb class), Holly Pavlik (148 lb class), Emmarie Pavlik (165 lb class), Auryana Hernandez (198 lb class), and Raquel Morales-Montalvo 198+ lb class). Miranda Stohlmann (132 lb class) and RaeLynne Nelson (181 lb class) were silver medalists. Gwen Bonham (114 lb class) was a bronze medalist. Nyla Wright (123 lb class) earned a 4th place medal.
This year’s state competition also had a jr. high portion to the meet. Braden Collingsworth (132 lb class), Carter Sharp (148 lb class), Mykel Murray (165 lb class), Ashlynn Yunker (114 lb class), Violet Pavlik (148 lb class), and Isabella Morales-Montalvo (165 lb class) were gold medalists.
The season isn’t over quite yet! The final meet of the school year will be the Orchard AAU Powerlifting Meet on Friday, April 10th & Saturday, April 11th at the Orchard Gym. The Orchard meet is another two-day event this year as a National AAU Meet! Because this is a sanctioned AAU event, the talents of both the high school and middle school Niobrara-Verdigre girls and boys lifters will be on display along with many other lifters from across the Midwest including numerous adult professional lifters. This meet is THE largest sanctioned meet in the state. Over the past 19 years we have seen numerous State, American, and World records set… hopefully we can have another amazing performance this year. There are 200 registered lifters, so the Orchard gym will be rocking in a couple of weeks! Lifting begins at 1:00 pm Friday, Apr. 10th and at 9:00 am Saturday, Apr. 11th.
Team picture…
Front (L-R): Nyla Wright, Melody Bonham, Gwen Bonham, RaeLynne Nelson, Alex Motacek, Jacob Motacek, Carter Sharp, Lennix Chavez, Jaden Robinett, Taylon Bertschinger.
Middle (L-R): Michael Sonnenfelt, Coach Gunnar Davidson, Aliyah Yunker, Zack Bolling, Austin Sharp, Sydney Kumm, Auryana Hernandez, Miranda Stohlmann, Ashlynn Yunker, Kaydence Jones, Coach Katie Koerick.
Back (L-R): Coach Jeff Shabram, Praeson Klug, Beckett Wessendorf, Charles Frame, Braden Collingsworth, Izaak Vakoc, Logan Collingsworth, Tiernan Bird, Gage Vesely, Josiah Heerdegen, Coach Justin Reiley.
On shoulders: Levi Hoferer, Mykel Murray.
Not pictured: Holly Pavlik, Emmarie Pavlik, Violet Pavlik, Raquel Morales-Montalvo, Isabella Morales-Montalvo.
