The Dartmouth College powerlifting team broke 10 records this winter after competing in the United States Powerlifting Association New Hampshire state championships. Four members of the team qualified for USPA Nationals, a reflection of a team effort according to Club Powerlifting president Mustafa Baig, ’23, who is a competitive lifter for Pakistan.

“It’s a team effort and then going into the state championship and breaking state records is reflective of how hard the team is working,” says Mustafa.

The championship was held in February for lifters in two divisions: juniors, defined as ages 21 to 23, and open, ages 23 to 40. Tanner Jones, ’22, one of Dartmouth’s national qualifiers, says that the team recently became involved in the competitive nature of the sport. “We just started getting access to train in Floren, and this is the first time we’re doing that,” Tanner says. “This is the first year we’ve really started to emphasize the competitive elements.”

Club Powerlifting co-captain Zippy Abraham Paiss, ’23, also secured a spot for nationals. Zippy leads alongside co-captain Nolan Yee, ’25, and says she finds coaching to be a rewarding experience that provides another avenue to evolve as a lifter. Zippy, who has been lifting for eight years, says the Dartmouth team has created a “wonderful community to continue [her] learning experience.”

The powerlifting team was founded in 2015 and has become popular with many Dartmouth students. The team is a club sport and thus has to handle any challenges independently from the college, even though the school provides support and answers questions. Powerlifting team vice president Celeste Ulicki, ’24, says her fellow executive board members have worked to create a diverse community of lifters on the team.

“I think we’ve genuinely done a good job of creating a space where anyone can feel welcome and entitled to be there versus your typical highly masculinized gym environment where the majority of people wouldn’t feel comfortable,” she says.

Many Big Green lifters secured victories last February, including junior lifters Katherine Bramante, ’26, Sascha Ries, ‘24, Bill Zheng, ’26, and Chris Eaton, ’26, all of whom won their weight classes.

The powerlifting team looks forward to USPA nationals this July as well as USAPL nationals this April.