Pulling their weight

Pulling their weight

Starr's Mill

and Sandy Creek perform well at weightlifting competiton

There were

a lot of ups and downs Saturday at the third annual Gold's Gym Panther

Invitational at Starr's Mill High School, but Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek

weight lifters came out on top.

The noise level,

chests, arms and weights rose and fell regularly during the five-hour-plus

event.

Students, parents

and friends from eight metro Atlanta high schools, including over 60 student

athletes from Starr's Mill, plus many from Sandy Creek High, participated.

Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek took top honors, winning first and second

place.

Coach Glen

Griffin and Coach Mike Earwood from Starr's Mill were instrumental in

putting the event together, with assistance from sponsor Gold's Gym, the

school's Booster Club and others.

Participants

were judged within their weight class in three weight lifting events,

bench press, squats and power clean. Competitors got three lifts in each

event. Judges took the highest one-rep maximum for each of the events,

added the totals from the three lifts to arrive at a "score."

This year there were seven weight classes; next year there will be nine,

Griffin said.

Medals were

awarded to the top three in each of the seven weight categories. Trophies

were awarded to the outstanding lifters per weight class, the overall

Outstanding Lifter and the top three teams.

While waiting

for weight tallies, Hugh Kirby, youth minister at New Hope Baptist Church,

past All-American power lifting champion and college football player,

spoke to the participants and guests filling the stands. His "Power

Team" demonstrated the best way to get rid of old automobile car

tags hand them to a body builder and ask him to rip them in half for you.

Old bats? They

can break them for you also.

A fun competition

pitted coaches and students against each other to see who could bend steel

rods, break bats and rip license tags the fastest. Three to eight seconds

was the norm.

Then, the crowd

was treated to a visit from eight-time Mr. Olympia, Gold's Gym member

and Fayette resident Lee Haney. Haney showed off his award-winning physique

and shared words of encouragement.

Next year,

Griffin hopes to attract even more schools to the event. Winners will

go on next year to compete in the state qualifiers.

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