Lawrence, Ginez secure national titles

WESLACO - The Weslaco East Wildcats powerlifting team had their own version of a Cinderella season this year.

The Wildcats won meet after meet in the regular season and came home with a regional title. But, they were not satisfied with that.
Weslaco East ended up bringing a state title home and a few state champions under their belt as well. Senior Jimmy Lawrence was one of the state champions in the 123-pound weight class and Senior Frank Ginez played an integral role for the Wildcats winning the state title.

Ginez ended up being the first Wildcat powerlifter in school history to sign a letter of intent and lift at the University of Texas-San Antonio.

From there, Ginez and Lawrence decided to take powerlifting to another level as they attended the USA powerlifting national competition held at Killeen last weekend, hoping to win the event. Mission accomplished!

Ginez and Lawrence both won their respective weight classes and will add some more hardwood to their already packed trophy case, a national title.

Lawrence will now have a chance to compete with Team USA at the junior worlds powerlifting competition in South Africa in August.

"When you think of basketball, you think of Michael Jordan. When it comes to Dallas Cowboys football, you think of Troy Aikman. In the state of Texas, when it comes to powerlifting, you think of Jimmy Lawrence," said Weslaco East head powerlifting coach Mike Burget. "He is a regional champion, a state champion, and now was awarded a national champion. I feel he will go 4-for-4 and bring home a world championship. He ended up with a total 1,181 and the coach for Team Lone Star, in which Jimmy represented at nationals, said that the total would have won him a world title last year."

Lawrence, who won the 123-pound weight class, said that even though won a national title, he was not content with his totals.

"I should have lifted a total of 1,220 at this meet," said Lawrence. "Even though my total won the event, I am not happy with it. There were some different commands at the national meet that at the other ones I competed in and it did affect me a little bit."

"But, winning a national title is great. However, I have a lot of work to do in order to achieve my goal at the world championships."

Even though Ginez won the 18-23 year old super heavyweight division, he will not have a chance to represent Team USA in South Africa.

"I ended up with a total of around 1,800, which was good enough to win a national title. But, the selection committee told me that my total was not good enough to advance," said Ginez. "I thought that was very unfair because I won my weight class. It doesn't feel right that I am not going to be able to go."

"However, at least I can say that I won a national championship. This definitely makes up for my third place finish at the state meet."

Burget said that despite Ginez not being able to represent Team USA at worlds, no one can take away from all of his accomplishments this year.

"Frank had an outstanding year and will be remembered as one of the best super heavyweights in powerlifting in the nation," said Burget. "This kid won every meet in the regular season and had some outlandish totals. It is a shame that he will not be able to compete in South Africa, but he will be lifting at UTSA real soon. I know that his coach up there is very excited about working with him and I can't wait to have an opportunity to see him at the next level."

Burget sees a very bright future for both his powerlifting stars.

"Jimmy will end up getting a 1,300 total and probably sign with a big sponsor like Titan or Inzer and lift professionally. As for Frank, he will end up squatting over 900 pounds and could become a collegiate national champion in the near future. Both these young men have a gift and I am glad I had the opportunity to see it unwrapped first hand."