PEARCY -- The lightest guys powered the Benton Panthers to a record Saturday.
Benton won the Class 7A/6A title at the 29th state powerlifting championships at Lake Hamilton's Wolf Stadium with an all-around performance.
The Panthers lifted a state-record 5,310 pounds as a team to break the previous record of 5,260 set by Junction City in 2009 and again in 2015.
"We felt like we had a chance to beat the old record if everybody performed well," Benton Coach Brad Harris said. "Coming in, we felt like we were 5,250. We had some guys lift better today."
Several Panthers set personal records and they were balanced throughout the 10 weight divisions.
"We had several guys PR by 10 pounds," Harris said. "That pushed us up."
Jayveon Parker won the 124-132 pound division, but was Benton's only individual champion. Walker Davis (heavyweight), Hunter Goodwin (243-259), Cain Simmons (149-165) and Tristan Ray (133-148) all finished second in their divisions, while Jayden Robinson (0-123) finished third.
"Our 123-pound guy, he went 185 on power clean and 185 on bench [press], which is a 20-pound PR for him," Harris said. "Our 132-pound guy showed up and weighed 134 pounds this morning. He had to shed two pounds to make weight. Then he PR'd on the power clean with a 245 and barely missed the state record of 255. You've got to have those light guys and then the heavyweights like Walker Davis with a 365 bench and 315 power clean. It takes a group effort. Our guys buy in every year, and we put a lot of pride in the weight room."
Camden Harmony Grove's Daniel Hill set the day's only state record, bench pressing 390 in the 166-181 weight division.
Hill said he trained heavy early in the week in preparation for Saturday morning.
"Heavy weights for a lot of reps," Hill said. "I trained super heavy this week before the meet. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, three days in a row. I went pretty heavy."
He weighed in at 176 pounds Saturday and after his three official lifts were over and the state record set, he actually lifted 410 to set an unofficial school record.
Hill said he loves the weight room and has been lifting since he was young.
"Pretty much since elementary school," he said. "I've been lifting since fifth grade, around nine."
A total of eight schools were represented in the 10 weight divisions for individual state titles with only Prescott and Lake Hamilton winning two.
Shiloh Christian's Bo Williams won the 182-198 division with a power clean of 305 and bench press of 325 for 630 pounds. Hazen's Luke King also combined for 630 pounds, but Williams weighed 11 pounds less to break the tie.
"I kind of surprised myself on the bench," Williams said. "I'm not really a bench lifter, but I hit that 325. It felt pretty good."
Although lifting in preparation for football season, Williams said he only started preparing for the weight meet in March.
"There's a lot of effort that goes into it, lifting every night," he said. "I was pumped to go. The competition itself, I probably started getting serious about a month and a half ago. We didn't know about it until about that time. They asked if we wanted to go down to the meet, and I said. 'Why not?' We looked at the numbers and thought I had a shot. That's when we started preparing, keeping my butt on the bench and looking at the rules."
Prescott's Jason Patrick won his second state championship of the week by taking the 199-220 pound division.
On Tuesday, he set a state record in the Class 3A state track and field meet with a discus throw of 168 feet, 4 inches as part of Prescott's team title.
On Saturday, he won the 199-220 pound division with a power clean of 285 and a bench of 335 for 620 pounds total to help lead Prescott to the Class 3A championship.
Patrick said he felt good about his bench, but didn't know about his power clean.
"I didn't think I had a shot today to win the overall," Patrick said. "I don't do much power clean. It worked out. I got 285. I happy to win it."
The state's strongest lifter was Hoxie heavyweight Caden Dougan with a 325 power clean and meet-best 420 bench for 745 total.
Beebe won Class 5A (4,390), Benton Harmony Grove won Class 4A (4,390) for the first time, Prescott won Class 3A (4,900) and Fordyce won Class 2A (4,280) for the third straight time.