The Water Valley girls powerlifting team took home the top spot in the MHSAA Class 3A North Half championships last week in the best performance in team history.

The Blue Devils put on a dominant performance, finishing 11 points higher than second-place Kossuth.

“We finished first with 47 points and that was a big deal for us,” said head coach Vaughn Daniels. “We actually found out when we were there at that meet that we were one point away from breaking the all-time region record.”

Powerlifting in Mississippi is broken up into 12 weight classes, and teams earn points for lifters who finish in the top five of each class. Seven points are awarded for a first-place finish, five for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth. Teams are allowed to compete with up to 12 total lifters, and can mix and match which weight classes they choose to compete in.

“We had a few girls that didn’t do what we thought they could do, but we were pumped by some of the ones that actually performed better than we expected,” Daniels said.

Senior Sydney Epes, junior Maggie Ward and senior Chloe Burrowes each took home the top spot for Water Valley in their respective weight classes. Seventh-grader Payton Darby, junior Cora Story, junior Maddie Adams and sophomore Abby Ingram all finished second in their weight class.

The Blue Devils hope to take home the top spot in the state meet on April 1 in Jackson after all 12 lifters qualified for the first time in school history.

“If our girls can do what we think they can do by that point we hope we can bring home a state title,” Daniels said. “We’re really pumped by the numbers we got so far, we set a lot of firsts for our girls all year. We’ve never had this many girls advance to state… last year was the most we’d ever taken and I think we took three, so we’ve never had these kinds of numbers in the past.”