Lake Brantley girl’s competitive weightlifting team coached by David Delfiacco and David Rollins has surpassed the Districts competition and successfully made it to States. This is significant due to weightlifting team members Zoe Maxson, freshman and Elena Korkes, junior. The girls are practicing and prepping every day for the big competition and are very proud of their fellow team members for helping them out along the way.

Maxson will not be competing in States but has participated in previous competitions for the team such as meets and Districts. Being a part of the team and beginner’s class is Maxson’s first experience with weightlifting.

“This is my first experience with weightlifting,” Maxson said. “Sometimes it’s hard to manage school, weightlifting and other sports, but I just have to make sure I get all my schoolwork done first and the whatever sport is most important at the time is what I have to work on next.”

Korkes, who has plenty of experience with weightlifting prior to joining the Lake Brantley weightlifting team, is primed and ready for her competition at States. Korkes is a part of the advanced weightlifting class and takes the sport seriously so she is making sure she practices as much as she can for States.

“This is not my first experience with weightlifting,” Korkes said. “I started lifting when I was younger, but for lifting at the high school level I started freshman year so this will be my third year lifting or the Lake Brantley team.”

As for prepping for States, it is not completely different from normal training, “Preparing for States is similar to the training that I complete all season long.” Korkes said. “You do different workouts each day, but it’s the same time commitment. The only thing about training for States is that the pressure is off because once you make it to States you’re just there to do your best and show off your best lifts. It’s no longer about moving on to a higher competition. It definitely helps to alleviate some of the stress put on you throughout the season. I still train five days a week similar to how I trained throughout the season, the only difference is the workouts are a little harder but it just makes you push yourself a little more.”

Korkes is also the only girl from Brantley to move on to States and Regionals this year and is proud of the team’s accomplishment this season in being successful with winning a majority of the meets and competitions.

“I’m very proud of all these girls and the hard work that they put in to better themselves each week and make small improvements,” Korkes said. “Weightlifting is a team sport but it’s also very much an individual sport, but we don’t let that stop us from having a team aspect which I find very important. You work hard to better yourself individually so that way as a team you are better as a whole, and I’m proud to say that these girls worked very hard to accomplish that.”