High‑school powerlifting surge
High‑school lifters flooded timelines with monster PRs — Leif Karlson posted a 530lb squat (PR and school record), 325lb bench (PR and school record), 515lb deadlift, and a shared 1,370lb total with video clips Leif Karlson's PRs. Across state meets, Arkansas senior Ethan Dunn dominated his class and overall, breaking state records in bench, squat, and deadlift, while Grant Itz placed 3rd and 5th at regionals and brought home hardware Ethan Dunn's records Grant Itz regional results.
OpenPowerlifting openpowerlifting.org lists Leif Karlson with a sanctioned meet result at the 2024 South Dakota State Championships, showing his last logged competition entry on that database. Hudl identifies Karlson as a Sioux Falls Christian athlete on a public highlights page, linking him to local high‑school sports programs in South Dakota. hudl.com Grant Itz’s competition history on OpenPowerlifting records a 3rd‑place finish at the Hornet Invitational on Feb. 14, 2026 and shows a personal‑best total of 562.4 at recent THSPA meets. openpowerlifting.org Grant’s OpenPowerlifting profile also lists a 2nd place at the Paul Williams Classic on Feb. 4, 2026, confirming multiple podium finishes at regional high‑school meets this season. openpowerlifting.org Ethan Dunn’s athletic profile on Hudl lists him as a Southside High School senior (class of 2026) with documented lifts and a multi‑sport résumé in football; local coverage profiles his role on Southside’s defense. hudl.com State record compendia and meet trackers such as LiftVault and the Arkansas Powerlifting site curate official state marks and rankings, and the Arkansas portal notes DOTS‑based ranking thresholds used for 2026 state standings. liftvault.com National and federation result aggregators including Lifting Database and USAPL publish meet results and state‑level records as meets conclude, documenting the surge of youth entries across January–March 2026 competition calendars. usapl.liftingdatabase.com
