High school girls set records at powerlifting competition

Jennifer Otto and Anna Cade, both 17, are typical high school seniors; both are home-schooled and attend the Home Link program through the Deer Park School District.

They both have jobs – Otto works at Dog Haven, and Cade works at Subway. Otto would like to attend Yakima Valley Community College to become a veterinary assistant. Cade hopes to attend Bible college to become a missionary someday.

But the two girls have picked up a hobby that is anything but typical.

They are powerlifters, who both set records at the World Association of Benchers and Deadlifters in Anaheim, Calif., last month.

Deadlifting isn’t lifting the weights over your head. The lifter grabs hold of the loaded barbell and stands up straight.

Cade, of Elk, set a state and world record for her weight and age classification when she deadlifted 281 pounds. She benched 121.2 pounds.

She weighs all of 114 pounds.

Otto, of Tum Tum, Wash., set a state and world record for deadlifting 308.5 pounds and set a state record for benching 187.2. She weighs 181.

They don’t look like powerlifters, and you shouldn’t tell them so.

“That’s an insult,” joked Cade.

The two teenagers started lifting for the opposite reasons. Otto wanted to lose weight, and Cade wanted to gain weight.

Their weightlifting instructor at Home Link, Danny O’Dell, has been working with the girls since Cade could only lift 20 pounds and Otto could lift 45 back in January 2003.

“I’m so tickled for these girls,” he said. “I’m so proud of them.”

The girls said that they still get sore from lifting, but knowing that they can lift more the next time they lift keeps them going.

“You’ve got to try them and get your body accustomed to heavy weights,” Otto said.

“It takes a lot of dedication and putting your body to the limit,” O’Dell said.

He also knows that the girls are busting through gender barriers while they do something they enjoy.

“I love comparing the girls to the guys,” he said.

Otto and Cade are aware that what they are doing isn’t typical of most teenage girls.

“I think we are adding to what it is today,” Otto said, noting that more teens are getting involved and more people are seeing it.

“(My favorite part) is being stronger than most of the guys,” Otto said of her classmates in the weightlifting class.

The trip to Anaheim was Otto’s third trip to the competition. Cade, who has been lifting just as long as Otto, shied away from the spotlight, but a competition in Pasco changed her mind.

“I just got really excited lifting down in Pasco,” Cade said.

“We knew she could break a lot of records,” Otto said of her friend.

The two girls really enjoyed their trip. It was Cade’s first time on an airplane, and she also visited the ocean for the first time. The pair also visited Knott’s Berry Farm.

“I loved it,” Cade said.

The two also raised enough money to pay for their trip and take O’Dell with them.

As much as they enjoyed the trip, they enjoy powerlifting that much more. They train two to three days a week, on top of all the other things that most teenagers do.

In fact, O’Dell worried that the girls were working at their jobs too hard last summer and didn’t think they were going to be able to compete.

Through hard work and dedication, they made it. Cade even came home with an award for Best Lifter in her classification.

Otto said that the hardest part about powerlifting is “your brain.”

“If you think you can’t, you can’t,” she said. “If you know you will, you will.”