Over the weekend, USA Weightlifting hosted the 2019 National Junior Championships. This competition also served as a Pan American Trial and brought out some the best American weightlifters in the country. At the National Junior Championships, a handful of Youth, Junior, and Senior American records were broken, and one of the most impressive broken records came from Katherine Nye.
Lifting in the -71kg weight class, Nye was able to extend her current Senior American Snatch record by successfully completing a 108kg/238 lb third attempt snatch. On the day, Nye ended up going going ⅔ in the snatch after missing her 104kg opener, then coming back to successfully make a 105kg second attempt, and her American record third.
In the clean & jerk, Nye opened with a successful 126kg/277 lb attempt, but unfortunately missed her second and third attempts with 131kg on the bar. The combination of her Senior American Record 108kg snatch and 126kg clean & jerk opener earned her a 234kg/515 lb total, which was more than enough for a first place finish. Nye’s total put her ahead of second place by a massive 40kg spread. Additionally, Nye took home the “best lifter” accolade for the women’s athletes, and recorded a 288.931 Sinclair Coefficient and amassed 781.8 Robi Points.
It was mentioned above, but Nye also held the previous -71kg Senior American Snatch record with a 107kg snatch that she completed at the American Open Finals in December 2018. For context, this is Nye’s second broken Senior American Record in a little over two months, so it’s going to be exciting to see what else 2019 has in store for her.
At the Pan American Trials, Mattie Rogers and Meredith Alwine both came out to qualify in the -71kg weight class. Rogers ended up taking first after recording a 236kg total, and Alwine took home second with a 234kg total. Needless to say, USA Weightlifting’s -71kg women’s athletes are all incredibly close right now, and 2019 is shaping up to be great year for these athletes.
Feature image from @usa_weightlifting Instagram page.
