RIO RANCHO — For the second consecutive year, Española Valley’s Leandro Salazar climbed atop the middle step of the podium at the Rio Rancho Event Center, bowed his head and smiled as the blue championship power lifting medal settled around his neck.
“This is something we as a team have been working toward for a long time,” he said following the Power Lifting State Meet on April 4-5. “I mean, I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s nice to see it come to a good end.”
Salazar is the last of the original six power lifters that began a weight program to help them get stronger for football, coach Rudy Martinez said. This was before the New Mexico Activities had implemented power lifting as a varsity sport.
“I had Leandro when he was in eighth grade, playing varsity football, and he took a beating, but he didn’t quit,” Martinez said. “Whenever we needed something, he was always the guy to pick us up. I’ve been with him five years. We’ve done track, we’ve done football, we’ve done power lifting. We’ve gone through the whole thing.”
Salazar, who competed in the 275-pound weight class, and his buddies, have helped transform the Española sports scene, Martinez said.
“He was one of the original six power lifters, and we’ve gone from virtually nothing as a program in both football and power lifting to a power and he’s the last of the original six,” the coach said. “And it’s going to be hard to replace these guys, but that’s how much he’s meant to us.”
Salazar helped the Sundevils to 23 points and a fourth place finish. Portales won the team event with 35 points.
He was only the winner among the Española boys, but Lawrence Carrasco in the 148 lb. class, Jacob Martinez in the 220 lb. class and Jesus Gonzales in 242 all took second.
“I’m disappointed in our day,” Rudy Martinez said. “It wasn’t the boys, we just had one of those days. We couldn’t get on, in sync. Everything that could go wrong did. We missed lifts we shouldn’t have missed. It was a hard day. But even through all that, having a hard day and people not making weight and people not hitting the weight they’re supposed to, we still took fourth. And I can’t be unhappy with that.”
A blue for Olivia Suazo in the 114 lb. class highlighted the girls side of things.
“It’s crazy. It hasn’t hit me yet,” she said. “I’m sure it’ll hit eventually. I mean, it did hit me (Friday), when I still had adrenaline. Tears started rolling down my face, because all I ever wanted was a state championship, and I worked really, really hard for it these past few months. After taking second last year, I was like, now’s my time. I just have to work for it. So since this summer, I’ve just been hitting the weight room and getting better.”
Rudy Martinez said that Suazo, who also plays tennis, is one of his most meticulous athletes.
“She’s a very unique athlete,” he said. “Olivia is very strong willed. She’s very determined. She’s probably the most dedicated athlete I’ve ever worked with, right down to her meal planning. She plans every meal. She plans every minute of the day. She keeps a journal. She writes down every exercise and how many times she does it every day. I mean, that’s a lot of dedication.”
Power lifting, Suazo said, has actually replaced tennis as her favorite sport.
“I started lifting my eighth grade year for tennis, and I met coach (Martinez) already in the weight room, and I really, truly liked lifting,” she said. “And ever since then, I just stuck with it. And the atmosphere is just amazing. What I really like is it’s about me. It’s just for me. It’s calming. And also it’s not just calming, but there’s just so many different emotions to it, and it just makes you feel alive.”
The girls finished fifth overall — the best finish they have had — with 16 points, with Lovington winning with 37 points.
The Sundevils also got a surprise second place finish from Naquita Martinez in the 198 class after she entered the meet seeded fifth.
“We’ve all known she was talented,” Rudy Martinez said. “And Nikki put together a day, right from the squats on. She had a personal record of like 650 pounds by over 100 pounds, and she put it together.”
Escalante
Growing up in a ranching family, Lobos senior Kaeden Iocca is used to picking up heavy things and tossing them about.
“Throwing hay bales, wrestling steers, just general, everyday, ranching,” he said, explaining his life.
So it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that Iocca dominated the 1A-3A, 275 class, easily winning the blue medal despite this being his first attempt at power lifting.
“I really enjoyed the coaching staff and I wanted to do it last year, but I chose not to, unfortunately,” Iocca said. “And I figured this will help me with my career. In the future, I plan on enlisting to the military and getting stronger is a part of that.”
He’s obviously pretty strong already and his efforts helped the Escalante boys to an 11th place finish despite having just three competitors.
“I think for one of the smallest teams here, we did exceptionally well,” coach Earl Martinez said. “I’m very proud of this team, their work ethic. They’ve had some setbacks in the past, and it’s been a really amazing run.”
Iocca’s presence should linger long after he’s left, the coach said.
“For us, it’s been a joy, because every week, we don’t know what he’s gonna do,” he said. “It’s like, you think he’s hit the top, and then he goes another level, and then we think he’s there, and he goes another level. And so that’s been the biggest joy, the fact that I’ve known Kaeden for a few years now. He’s a great kid. He’s very polite; yes sir, no sir, kind of thing. And just a joy to coach. And you can’t ask much more than for a kid that goes above and beyond what you ask. And then when the others see it and when he sees that what he does brings results, I think this is feeding off all these other kids that they’re going to see that if I work as hard as he does, I might be here too.”
It was the perfect way to bow out athletically, Iocca said.
“To end my high school athletic career with a win is so surreal,” he said. “I feel that I’ve been held back in terms of my football career with high school, but coming here, I get to show what I can do, and it’s for me, instead of having to rely on others. This is for me and showing what I can do personally.”
For the girls, it was a tough go as they struggled with finding the right groove to satisfy the judges.
Still, Earl Martinez is optimistic about the future.
“I like where we’re headed with the girls,” he said, adding eighth grader Araseli Trujillo took fifth in the 105 class.