"There's a lot of math behind it," Springstead's Mike Garofano says.
By JOHN SCHWARB
Published March 21, 2004
Weightlifting is about as basic as sport gets, right?
One guy lifts, another guy lifts, then another. Whoever hoists the most weight wins.
It's that easy - almost.
Brawn rules, but it helps to have brains. Just ask the coaches, who don't lift much more than a clipboard yet do some heavy work.
Before Wednesday's county meet, Springstead's Mike Garofano did some serious number-crunching with past results from other schools and predictions for what his Eagles would do.
He figured Springstead would earn 55 points and have an excellent shot at winning. The Eagles won with 53 points, four ahead of Hernando and Central's 49.
"There's a lot of math behind it," Garofano said.
"During the meet I was walking around each station, seeing what we were getting here and there," he said. "So many things can go differently."
Like swimming and track, it's a sport of individual performances with scores that add up toward a team mark.
Picking up first-place points in a weight class is key, as Springstead did in the county meet with Steve Leon (at 119 pounds), Jeff Sullivan (154), Jason Kurman (219) and Charles Gonyea (heavyweight). But the 1-4 points received for second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes are just as important.
In the 129 class, Josh Magrini tied for second with Central's Chris Rodriguez with 380 total pounds lifted in the bench press and clean, meaning each athlete's weight would determine points with the lighter one earning more points.
Rodriguez weighed 128.5 pounds, Magrini was 128.6.
"One-tenth of a pound more. If he weighed-in without his singlet, that's a two-point swing," Garofano said. "We learned our lesson from that. Fortunately, it didn't come back to hurt us.
