For the second time in as many years, the women’s powerlifting team brought a national title back to Thibodaux, winning the national championship on April 16-17, 2005, at the U.S. Powerlifting Collegiate Nationals in Baton Rouge.Juniors Ashley Matherne and Lacy Picou, senior Kelly Louque and sophomore Jamie Johnson each placed first in their respective weight classes. Matherne won the 105-pound weight class while Picou was victorious in the 181-pound class. Louque claimed the top spot in the 198-pound class, and Johnson won the unlimited classification.
Freshman Elizabeth Arnold finished second in the 198-pound class. Sophomore Dekeshia Anderson placed third in the 165-pound class, and senior Ashley Millet placed fifth in the 148-pound class.
Additionally, sophomore Brandon Bizette competed in the 275-pound weight class and placed fifth.
Despite being injured, Jon Magendie, head powerlifting coach, said junior Jesse Hodges contributed greatly to the team’s success.
“It just goes to show the benefit of hard work,” Magendie said of his team’s success. “The only way they got training was to come to Baton Rouge twice, sometimes three times a week.”
Magendie said beginning last summer and continuing this past season, the squad traveled to Baton Rouge to train.
“Stopher (Gym) is useless, and the administration has not facilitated use of Barker (Hall) like they said they would or would not,” Magendie said. “At one point they said they would hire a student worker to keep Barker open, and the kids told me it never happened. More often than not the lifters were telling me Stopher was locked, and they couldn’t get into it.”
Matherne said the team achieved its goal of training hard and winning another national championship.
“Our team goal this year was to train hard and win the championship again, and we did that,” Matherne said. “We wanted to stay as a team and overcome the challenges of having to travel, train and fundraise to compete.”
Along with winning national titles in their respective weight classes, Matherne, Picou, Louque and Johnson all were selected to be part of Team USA and will compete at the International Powerlifting Federation Junior World Powerlifting Championships on Sept 5-11 in Fort Wayne, Ind. Additionally, Magendie said Arnold has a good shot at being selected as the No. 1 alternate.
As for the future, Magendie said the team “is pretty much over and done with” due to graduation and eligibility being used up.
He said both Picou and Louque used up their eligibility. Matherne has been accepted to nursing school and has to complete clinicals, and he is unsure whether or not she will compete in 2006. Hodges left Nicholls, and Anderson will not be lifting because of a knee injury.
Millet, Bizette and Johnson have eligibility remaining, and Magendie expects at least one of them to transfer to Louisiana State University where he serves as head coach of the powerlifting team. Arnold also has eligibility remaining.
