Arabian Aaliyah Terrazas moves on to State powerlifting competition

The regional qualifying Devine Arabian powerlifting team traveled to Pharr San Juan Alamo for the THSWPA Region 5 Championships Friday, March 2. The region includes schools from as north as New Braunfels all the way down to the Brownsville area.
The long haul was worth it for all involved, but especially for Aaliyah Terrazas who earned the right to move on to state competition in Waco on March 16.
“I am very proud of these girls and how they performed. They were focused and determined to improve. I told each of them our goal was to get PR’s in our totals for every lifter. With only one senior competing, I was not sure how they were going to handle pressure and what mindset they had going into the meet. Coach Devin Rotramel and I prepared them mentally and hoped they believed in what we were trying to get them to focus on.
Almost every girl moved up in standings for the meet. More impressive, none moved down. Aaliyah started at 7th and moved up to 6th, Trinity stayed at 10th, Jeanette started at 11th and ended up 9th, Jessie started at 10th and moved up to 7th, Khali started at 7th and moved up to 6th, Felicity started at 8th and moved up to 7th.

From left to right: Jessie Ramirez, Victoria Gonzales, Clarissa Ybanez, Aaliyah Terrazas, Jeanette Rios, Felicity Diaz, Trinity Garza, and Jazlin Olvera.

On another level, I am very proud of my lone senior competing at Regionals, Jessie Ramirez. You will not find a harder worker than Jessie. She represented Devine with class and heart and I am extremely proud of her. It took us two years to convince her to join powerlifting but we are very grateful she did. She has been a great role model. She gave us everything she had every day, no shortcuts. I am going to miss her next season!
As far as the other regional qualifiers, they are all coming back in 2020, which should make us a force to be reckoned with in Region 5. I am very excited for the future of Arabian Powerlifting!
One girl advanced to State. Our plan going into the regional meet was if we could get Aaliyah to squat 250lbs., we thought we would have a chance to make the state total, which can only occur at the regional meet and not during seasonal meets.
Aaliyah did get 250lbs but she was red lighted for depth, as the ‘wonderful’ judges believed she did not go low enough. My feelings, of course, were opposite as I called her lower than her previous lift. She ends up just having 230lbs as her best in squat and we knew we had an uphill battle ahead.
Aaliyah improved her bench by 5lbs as her best was previously 115lbs; we knew we were 20lbs behind what we had planned. She opened deadlift with 240lbs and was successful. Her personal best was 250lbs; we went up to 260lbs for the second attempt.
I told Coach Rotramel that regardless if she gets 260lbs or not that we were going for 280lbs on the last attempt. We had to try to give her an opportunity to go to state and not wonder “what if?”
Well, she got 260lbs successfully and, honestly, she got it somewhat easy. At this point, I am extremely excited for her. I tell her we are going for 280lbs and she is fixing to qualify for state. I told her I knew she would get it so get herself mentally ready. We got to the final lift and all her teammates were cheering her on.
Aaliyah lifted the weight and we were all so excited! What a competitor she is! This girl still has a lot left in the tank and I am excited about the opportunity she has at state. Our goal is to medal at the state meet in Waco, Texas on March 15th.
Region 5 has the best lifters in the state. I can guarantee you that out of the top 10 in the state in the 105lb weight class, at least 5 will be from our region,” stated Head Coach Paul Gomez.
Arabian results (name, place, class, squat, bench, dead lift, total): Aaliyah Terrazas-6th-105-230-115-280-625; Trinity Garza-10th-105-235-85-220-540; Jeanette Rios-9th-114-215-135-260-610; Jessie Ramirez-7th-148-300-140-300-740; Khali Key-6th-198-315-190-320-825; Felicity Diaz-7th-220-315-160-320-795.
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer