Weightlifting: Three Tars in top 11 at junior nationals

TORRANCE - A pair of Newport Harbor High football players placed

sixth in their respective weight classes at the recent National Junior

Weightlifting Championships at the Torrance Marriott.

Senior Joe Foley, competing in the 231-pounds-plus classification for

ages 17-20, recorded lifts of 220 pounds in the snatch and 308 in the

clean and jerk to place sixth.

Freshman Spencer Link, who saw some varsity action in the CIF Southern

Section Division VI playoffs last fall, was sixth in the 152-pound class

for ages 16-and-under. He hoisted 154 pounds in the snatch and 209 in the

clean and jerk.

The snatch requires lifting the bar from the ground over one’s head in

a continuous motion. The clean and jerk involves lifting the bar from the

ground to one’s chest, pausing briefly, then pressing it overhead. The

combined total of both lifts determines placing.

Newport Harbor junior Jimmy Sanchez was 11th in the 170-pound class

for ages 17-20. He lifted 187 pounds in the snatch and 286 in the clean

and jerk.

Harbor senior Jim Rothwell was 20th in the 152-pound class for ages

17-20. He cleared 170.5 pounds in the snatch and 220 in the clean and

jerk.

Link and Rothwell competed March 9, while Foley and Sanchez competed

March 10. All four Sailors bettered their qualifying marks.

Foley bettered his qualifying clean and jerk by 43 pounds, while Link

added 54 pounds to his clean and jerk qualifying mark. Sanchez bettered

his previous best clean and jerk by 33 pounds.

Mike Bargas, the Sailors’ defensive line coach and strength

coordinator, said the two-day competition, which included more than 500

lifters, has inspired all four to try to make next year’s junior

nationals in Orlando, Fla.

“Sanchez has potential and Link is only a freshman,” Bargas said. “And

Foley and Rothwell said they’d both like to keep lifting next year in

college.”

The foursome joined Pete Hogan, Steve Gonzales and Billy Gabriel as

former Newport standouts who have competed in the junior nationals.

-- by Barry Faulkner