BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Four individual champions and a team championship trophy.
It was a good day for Raiford Wreckshop at the second annual Powerlifting America TFX Open Championships in Orlando on April 23.
“We owe all our success to God,” said Raiford Wreckshop Coach Bryan Griffis.
It was no surprise three of the weightlifters won championships as Courtney Comer, Brianna Jordan and Zeke Malphurs have proven again and again to be the strongest in their age/weight divisions. However, Kaylee Wright, the fourth participant, has recently begun working out under Griffis’ tutelage. She has weightlifting experience in high school — she’s qualified for the state finals each of the last two years for Keystone Heights High School — but this was Wright’s first powerlifting meet.
“She’s going to be a force to be reckoned with,” Griffis said.
Wright (16 years old, 84-kilogram class) had a 168.5-pound bench press, a 273.5 deadlift and a 268 squat.
Griffis said Wright adapted well from what she does in high school competitions to what’s done in powerlifting and said she had no nerves in her first meet.
The coach sees a bright future for Wright, not only in powerlifting, but in high school competitions. This past season, Wright, a junior, became the first KHHS girls weightlifter to earn a medal in state competition in nine years. She placed sixth in the 183-pound class.
“If she keeps working and doing like she should, she’s going to win a state championship,” Griffis said.
Comer (18, 76-kilogram class), a Bradford High School junior who’s coming off her second straight state championship in high school competition, was the pound-for-pound strongest lifter at the TFX Open Championships. She did 262.5 in the bench press, 403.5 in the deadlift and 345.5 in the squat.
“This was her best meet as far as all three (lift events) combined,” Griffis said.
Griffis said he had been working with Comer on perfecting her form in the deadlift. His tutelage paid off.
“When she did (403.5), everybody went crazy,” Griffis said.
Jordan (17, 69-kilogram class), a BHS junior who’s coming off her first state championship in high school, showed great improvements in her totals. She did 368.5 in the deadlift, which was a 40-pound jump, while her 345.5 in the squat was a 20-pound jump.
The squat total could’ve been even more.
“She should’ve gone up,” Griffis said. “I was mad at myself for not moving her up.”
Jordan also had a bench press of 227.5.
Malphurs (14, 74-kilogram class), an eighth-grader at Lake Butler Middle School, did 254.5 in the bench press, 368.5 in the deadlift and 331.5 in the squat.
“His total went up over 100 pounds,” Griffis said, adding that based on body weight and size, Malphurs lifts more weight than any other boy he’s trained.
“He’s making really, really good gains,” Griffis said.
The coach said he viewed this meet as basically kind of a warmup for Comer, Jordan and Malphurs, a chance just to get them used to competing in powerlifting again. Their totals, though, showed him they are already in top form and ready to make noise at the next level in competition.
“If they look like this at Junior Nationals — oh, my goodness,” Griffis said.
