By Coach Lonnie Flippen, VISD
Elvis Tarango closed out his high school powerlifting career at the Region 3 powerlifting meet in Sundown, Texas on Saturday, March 11th with a fourth place finish. He had gone into the meet tied for third in the state overall and at this time sits in a three way tie for fifth in the state overall.
After having “bombed out” in his last invitational meet a couple of weeks earlier, Tarango went into the first lift, the squat, at a lower weight and successfully lifted 385 pounds. He missed his first attempt at 420 which left him about forty pounds out of second place and a possible trip to the state meet. He decided to attempt 435 pounds in an attempt to make up some ground and missed that lift as well.
He managed to maintain the forty pound deficit with a lift of 270 pounds in the bench press as neither one of his closest competitors had better lifts than Tarango in this second portion of the meet.
Tarnago was still behind going into his second lift in the deadlift which has been his best lift of the year. He increased his second attempt from 410 pounds to 485 pounds, a personal record, and was successful to the astonishment of many. At this time, Tarango was five pounds behind the lifter sitting in third place and fifteen pounds behind the lifter in second place. Realizing that he needed to go 515 pounds on his last lift in order to qualify for the state meet, Tarango decided that that was what he wanted to do and forgo an opportunity to finish in third place. He made a tremendous effort to get the 515 pounds up, but just missed in doing so.
Elvis Tarango decided to take up powerlifting last year in his junior year as his choice of sports were limited due to the shortage of numbers at Valentine. He had already gone into weight lifting having built his own gym at home out of makeshift equipment. This young man earned a great deal of respect the last couple of years as he attended powerlifting meets throughout West Texas and was well known by all of his opponents and their coaches. He worked hard to become the competitor that he is. The school and the community are extremely proud of all that he has accomplished.
