The ’90s LSU baseball teams. The 1997 to 1999 Yankees. The 1999 to 2002 Lakers. Each one of these teams has been called a dynasty.
After last weekend’s Powerlifting Collegiate Championships, the LSU powerlifting team is flirting with its own label of greatness.
The women won their third team title since 2007 at the competition held in Scranton, Pa. The men earned third place for their fifth top-five finish in as many years.
The team brought 29 lifters to the competition — a mix of first-time championships competitors and seasoned veterans.
Travis Nichols, kinesiology junior, made his first trip to the championships this year.
“There was a lot of excitement,” he said. “There was a lot more energy than I had expected.”
Nichols finished third in the 275-pound weight class, squatting 727 pounds, bench pressing 441 pounds and deadlifting 579 pounds for an overall total of 1,747 pounds.
Samantha Baker, biochemistry senior and women’s team captain, broke a national collegiate record by squatting 446 pounds, bench-pressing 242 pounds, deadlifting 391 pounds and lifting a total of 1,079 pounds. She finished first in the women’s 148-pound weight class in her fourth year at the championships.
“We’re good about getting a good team network together and stressing how important that is, especially at nationals,” Baker said.
The women’s team only brought seven competitors, but each finished in the top five of their weight class. Baker, Kaitlin Stewart, Kiela Badeaux and Ariel Parker claimed top honors.
The competition comprises a squat, a bench press and a deadlift. The lifters’ highest scores from each are combined to decide placement in the event. The lifters are divided by their weight class, and the top five finishers earn points for their team.
Members of the team attribute the club’s repeated successes to its leadership and teamwork.
“We have a great support system,” said Adriana Dantin, ecology graduate student and lifter. “There’s people pumping you up and cheering you on, and it really does help.”
Baker agreed and added the team focuses on technique at practice.
“It’s not that practice makes perfect,” she said. “Perfect practice makes perfect. We train every practice like that, and combined with our teamwork, our attitude is our greatest attribute.”
Club president and kinesiology senior Andy Hughes said he has seen the club grow since he first joined in 2007.
“When I first joined the team, they had just come off their first title win and we went to Collegiates in 2008 in Denver and brought a total of maybe 15 or 16 people,” he said. “And now we have, give or take, 40 people in the gym at one time.”
Mike Godawa, the club’s head coach, is a former LSU gymnast and a former assistant LSU women’s gymnastics coach.
Hughes said Godawa’s experience with athletics is a big help for the powerlifting team.
Good coaching is key when only half a team’s members have experience, according to Hughes.
“When I joined the team, I had never squatted or deadlifted before,” he said. “I’d say almost half of the people that we get have done some type of athletic activity in high school that involved lifting.”
Hughes said the team’s success builds upon itself, which keeps the team successful year after year.
“It’s been a lot better recently because we have a lot of titles to our name now,” he said. “All the kids in high school are looking at that.”
 
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Contact Albert Burford at [email protected]