Belen, Valencia and Los Lunas send strong teams to state powerlifting meet

Valencia County put a rare amount of strength on the state stage as Belen, Valencia and Los Lunas all sent lifters to the New Mexico Powerlifting Championships at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

Belen carried the deepest local group, qualifying 16 lifters, eight boys and eight girls. Four Eagles entered their classes ranked No. 1: Manny Valdez at 132 pounds, Nehemiah Sanchez at 181, Kendra Sims at 198 and Alondra Jacquez at 220. That kind of top-end depth gave Belen a real shot at medals and team points, not just individual appearances.

Jacquez, one of the Eagles’ top-ranked lifters, reflected the team’s tone by describing the group as family-like and focused on doing things the right way for one another. That mattered in a sport built on precision as much as power, with every squat, bench press and deadlift carrying weight for the individual and for the team score.

Valencia also arrived with medal hopes. Jaden Martinez-Flowers, the Jaguars’ headliner at 259-plus, was the top seed and looked to defend the 4A girls title she won in 2025 with an 840-pound total. Valencia brought eight girls overall, and Adrianna Berni entered as a contender at 97 pounds. On the boys side, Edel Amaya led Valencia’s four male entrants as the Jaguars tried to build on a program that already produced state success last year, when Valencia’s girls finished 11th in 4A.

Los Lunas added another strong local contingent, sending five boys and three girls. Maleek Minor ranked third at 123 pounds, while Emma Jones was fourth in the 132-pound division. With multiple schools from the same county qualifying high-level lifters, Valencia County showed that its powerlifting pipeline now reaches well beyond participation and into the medal hunt.

The meet fit into a sport that has expanded quickly across New Mexico high schools since it began in 2020 as an activity and later became sanctioned by the New Mexico Activities Association. More than 500 athletes from 81 schools qualified for this year’s championship, a sharp jump from the first title meet in 2021, which featured just 13 schools. Belen’s first sanctioned home meet, the Belen Iron Invitational on April 2, added to that momentum, with the Eagles winning the girls team title and edging Los Lunas in the boys competition.

Friday’s boys competition and Saturday’s girls meet both began at 10 a.m., with doors opening at 9. For Valencia County, the bigger story was not simply attendance at state, but the way Belen, Valencia and Los Lunas arrived with legitimate contenders, established leaders and enough depth to make the county a factor across the board.