Senior Natasha Cruz will be walking into Wednesday’s regional powerlifting meet with her head held high and renewed strength, ready to conquer the same place she faced defeat last year.
It was a year ago that Cruz looked like a sure thing to advance to state again at Prosper High School, but she failed to get any of her three deadlift attempts, eliminating her state title chances.
“Honestly, it was just a lot of emotions,” Cruz said. “After that I really broke down and cried in the hallway for a solid 20 minutes, because I feel like all my hard work was just wiped away like that. I also had a really good chance at winning state. I was way ahead of the girls at regionals, so I wasn’t really supposed to go full effort. It just discouraged me.”
Powerlifting coach Billy Davison said he was shocked when Cruz bottomed out.
“I disagreed with the judges on the lifts,” Davison said. “I thought she had a clean lift.”
However, despite the initial shock of this setback, Cruz was determined to bounce back stronger and better than ever before for her last season.
“This year, I feel more mentally prepared now because of what happened last year,” Cruz said. “It built me up more.”
Cruz has lifted more weight than any female WFISD powerlifter has ever done before. At the Archer City meet earlier this month, Cruz totaled 480 pounds in the squat, 265 pounds in the bench and 1,150 pounds total.
Cruz is set on earning a state title to prove herself after last year. She definitely experiences nerves from both internal and external pressure, but has ways of managing it.
“I look back at my old videos and see where I was before and hype myself up,” Cruz said. “I say ‘OK, I was there back then, and I’m here now.’ I’ve made so much progress. My siblings – my sister and brother – they also help me a lot. They try to calm me down and everything.”
Aside from her mental preparation, Cruz has maintained a rigorous training schedule which includes two workouts a day.
“I do it because I want to prove my own self wrong,” Cruz said. “I just think every day I don’t want to go through what I went through last year and I want to go for it all.”
In her past three years on the team, Cruz has grown immensely in confidence and become a role model for her younger teammates.
“She is more of a leader now,” Davison said. “She works with the younger girls and helps develop them as lifters.”
Rider qualified all 16 girls lifters for the regional meet and only two of those are alternates. Cruz is excited about her team’s success.
“You see so many teams that don’t have that good bonding, but with us we can just talk with each other,” Cruz said. “It’s nice, especially with girls.”
Overall, Davison is feeling positive about the Raiders going into the school’s last regional appearance.
“We’re taking more kids than we ever have, and if we compete like we have all year it will be a good meet for us,” Davison said.
Cruz walked out of the regional meet last year with tears. She expects to be walking out this year with a regional title.
“I feel like people expect so much from me and I expect so much from myself also,” Cruz said. “I really want to live up to people’s expectations and I want to win it all for my senior year.”
