Freshman Caroline Kent is succeeding in competitions as she begins weightlifting at CrossFit, and she is growing to love the sport, along with her team, coach and the empowering feeling of weightlifting. 

“I know that not a lot of girls do [weightlifting] and I used to do dance and do gymnastics and its a change; you’re treated differently,” Kent said.

Right from the beginning, Kent exhibited hard work in weightlifting. Even though she is new to training, her gymnast background and consistent effort has helped her tremendously.

“She has a background in gymnastics and that really helps with weight lifting and being explosive, so she joined the team really athletic and I have definitely seen a lot of improvement in her weightlifting,” teammate Abby French said. 

The environment at Crossfit also helps Kent thrive and improve her weightlifting and the constant support provides her with motivation. 

“[The environment at Crossfit is] very welcoming and all my friends remember what it was like to be a newcomer so they’re really supportive,” Kent said. 

Her coach, Joe Black, has noticed a large improvement since she first started, both in strength and comprehension of weightlifting tactics. 

“She’s improved so much,” Black said. “Really from her technically, she’s understanding what we’re doing more and more each time that she comes. She’s slowly getting stronger and [she’s] able to use her body in ways that she wasn’t before. All signs point to her headed in the right direction.”

Kent regularly attends practices three times a week, each session for one and a half hours. There, Black will run warmups and teach them different techniques. After that, people do their own work individually.

“Our coach usually runs a team warm up that everyone does and then we get all of our equipment that we need, but then people kind of do their own thing on their own time,” French said. 

Kent competed in her first competition in October. She was nervous for her first competition, but with her talent and support from her peers, she did very well in the competition. She kept the mentality of just making her lifts, which helped her concentrate and not let her nerves get to her. 

“She went six for six [in her lifts] which is really great,” Black said. “That’s exactly what you want out of that first meet. That first meet is all about experience and she did a great job there.”

Overall, Kent hopes to continue her weightlifting journey and she has set goals for future competitions.

“I just like to get stronger and maybe make it to youth nationals at some point,” Kent said.