Bartlesville High School Weightlifter Ready To Compete Nationally

In just less than a month, Xander Parsons will be competing with some of the best weightlifters in the country at the National Junior Championships in Lombard, Illinois.

"We're just going to build up and get as strong as we can get and then go in and put my name out there," Parsons said.

The sophomore qualified a few weeks ago, lifting a total of 232 kilograms, about 510 pounds, between snatch and clean-and-jerk. He took up the sport just ten months ago.

"I tried it and I fit well in with everybody here, and I just loved it, and since then, I've just been weightlifting for him," he said. 

"Him" is Daniel West, Xander's coach at Pure Health Performance in Bartlesville.

"Just the way he moved. For as big as he was, he moved so quickly. Just a lot of power," said West. 

Now it hasn't all been smooth sailing for Xander. A rough performance at a state meet ended up having a bit of a silver lining, and served as a wake up call. 

"I had the mindset that I was just going to go in and destroy everything and it was gonna be my house kinda thing," Parsons said. "And I went in there and I bombed out." 

"That was kind of the turning point, in that, I need to take this serious," said Coach West.

Support has poured in to help get him to the competition next month. There's even a fundraising meet at his home gym this Saturday.

"Whenever my dad told me there was a GoFundMe and all this stuff, I broke down, man. I started crying," Xander said.