This is Koen lifting at the meet. He was very happy with how he did. He won in his weight category for both Olympic and Traditional. He says “It’s all about confidence getting under the weight.” And this meet gave him the confidence he needed for the season.

Senior Koen Devenni was ready to lift in the first meet of the season. He prepared for the meet by “…completing my own workouts. In the days before the meets we just rest and stretch.” He’s in class “…183. 183 is one of the most competitive classes in the nation, so it’s definitely a hard class to compete in.” He tells us that there are two events in weightlifting “…Olympic and Traditional. Olympic is snatch and clean jerk totals and Traditional is clean jerk and bench totals.” He competed in both. He was “…nervous before because I hadn’t competed since states last year and I had to get back into it, but I was also excited.” After competing he explains, “I won both divisions for my weight class and our team for 2nd at the meet.” Even though he was happy to compete and win, he wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance. He says, “I won which is great, but I didn’t do as well as I wanted. I was hurt for the first meet, so I was disappointed with that. Competing still took a lot of pressure off because I got used to the feeling again, and I was more confident for the next meets.”

Being on the weightlifting team for Koen is “…definitely fun, especially as a senior. I have a leadership role and teach the younger kids what to do and see them progress.” Koen loves a lot of things about the sport. He loves “…going to meets and talking to all the other people there. It’s fun to talk to the other teams and hearing what they do.” What he’s going miss most about weightlifting is “…the stands and having people there watching and cheering me on. I’ll miss the energy of the meets. I’ll definitely also miss the underclassmen. One of my friends, Dominic Minnilo, we’ve been competing together since middle school and he’s a sophomore and I’m a senior, so we’re not gonna be able to see each other. I’ll miss him.” Overall, Koen was happy to kick off his senior season with a win and excited to see where the season takes him.