On March 4, Marquette High School hosted the first Rockwood School District weight lifting competition, featuring all four Rockwood high schools. Nineteen athletes represented Summit with the falcons placing 2nd overall in the competition with 7798.158 points. The competition featured three different events: bench press, hang-cleans, and squats.

One of the athletes, sophomore Devin Walker, placed third in the competition and reached his personal record of 380 pounds in the hang-clean event. Walker said that the team performed strong together and he looks forward to future events.

“[Summit was] short a couple players. We definitely could have gotten first place, but everyone that showed up competed very well. There’s a lot of great competition out there. Definitely just got to keep grinding in the weight room,” Walker said.

Summit coach and P.E. teacher Jonathan Bunyard was in charge of the weight lifting team, and said that the competition had been in development for a while.

“We’ve actually started preparing for it in 2018, 2019. It gained a little bit of traction, then we had COVID and we were never able to get back around to it until about two years ago. So the hope is to have it every year now, I think next year they want to do it again at Marquette and then my goal is to have it [at Summit] in 2028,” Bunyard said.

Senior Charlie Stanek, one of three girls who represented Summit, will have graduated by the next Rockwood weight lifting competition, but said that for a new event it was a great experience. 

“It felt like a lot of controlled chaos, since it was Rockwood’s first time doing this. It was a bit all over the place but it happens and I think next year and the years to come, we’ll be even better. I just hope we beat Eureka next year,” Stanek said.