Lady Sandites Place Fourth at First Girls Powerlifting State Meet

Courtesy of Kevin Avey.

This story was originally written for the Sand Springs Leader.

Anyone who watched Jaden “JJ” Jordan on the softball field as a sophomore can testify to the strength of the .743 slugger. Now a junior, Jordan is starring in a brand new sport. 

In her first year of competition in girls powerlifting, Jordan finished as a State runner-up and led her team to a fourth-place finish at the State meet. 

When strength and conditioning coach Kevin Avey saw her strength in the gym last winter, he knew she was special. In fact, her numbers on squat, bench, and deadlift were higher than last season’s state champion in girls powerlifting. 

“I looked it up and last year, she would have won State,” said Avey. “So I said, you know what, next year we’re going to do this. And then it just kind of expanded.”

Mikah Hampton and Melanie Skelly joined up and the Sandites competed at their first OGPCA meet in Nowata this January. 

“I realized that with three girls we weren’t going to do very well as a team,” said Avey. “So I started recruiting even more and I got four more right at the end of January.”

As the strength coach for all of the district’s athletic programs, Avey already knew which girls would be the most competitive in their weight classes, and who would be most interested.

He recruited Ashley Blake and Madison Thompson from cheer, Kasidy Holland from volleyball, and Carson Sargent from soccer in time for the Catoosa Invitational. There, the Sandites took seventh place with Jordan winning all three events.

The team improved to fourth place at the Dickson Invitational with Jordan and Holland finishing as runners-up. 

Then, at the North Regional, the team finished second with Jordan winning deadlift and squat, and placing second in bench. 

Jordan, Hampton, and Thompson all qualified for the 6th annual State meet on Monday, March 7th, at Dickson High School in Ardmore.

Jordan was second overall at heavyweight, placing fourth in squat, third in bench, and second in deadlift at 405 pounds.

Hampton placed sixth overall at 108, third in squat, and was first in bench with 120 pounds. 

Thompson was just ten pounds shy of placing in the top-ten at 198 pounds.

The Sandites are also poised to see increased participation next year. Avey coaches more than 60 girls in the high school strength program and has a growing junior high program as well. Several underclassmen have already expressed interest in joining the powerlifting team next year.

“After Jaden, there were two other girls that had quit their sports and were still wanting to do something. And I’ve got seven already that have asked about it for next year, and I know one of them doesn’t do any sports.”

“So my idea is just for more athletes to just come and do something as opposed to nothing. Yeah Carson Sargent and Kasidy, they can do another sport - we all welcome them in. But my real main focus is let’s get more people involved and get them lifting and exercising. It opens up so many avenues while they’re in high school but especially when they graduate.”

The program is also a great opportunity for athletes who want to compete but aren’t seeing a whole lot of minutes in their primary sports. 

“In whatever sport it is, there’s only nine, five, eleven players on the field at a time,” said Avey. “In powerlifting, you can take as many as want to go.”

For now, there’s no immediate plans to start a boys team, though a few guys have expressed interest.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Avey. “I started with Jaden then went to two girls, then went to seven, now there’s seven more wanting to do it. I’m just trying to figure out how to make it better.”