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Coach Ryan Koopman is excited to be adding Competitive Weightlifting to the Fulda students’ list of options as a winter sport. Fulda Competitive Weightlifting began for the first time this past winter.
“I want kids to compete and participate in as many sports as possible. However, if they are not going to do a winter sport, I want them to do something,” Koopman said. “The previous winter we just lifted after school. This year I suggested that they compete in weightlifting. I did this to give them a goal, something to work for.”
Koopman said the October to March stretch between football/ volleyball season and the track season is long, and athletes can hit a lull and get bored in that down period.
“I made several phone calls to figure out what to do, and we just showed up and competed,” Koopman stated. “In our first year we had a huge amount of success. Mason Kirchner was the 65 KG Jr Youth State Champion. Bennett Runkle placed in both of his meets and just missed qualifying for state.”
As the year ended, they talked about how lifting at Nationals was a goal for 2027. On May 28th at the Minnesota Weightlifting year-end coaches meeting, the head of Minnesota Weightlifting asked, ‘Is Fulda in the room?’
When Koopman chimed in “Yes!” the coach then asked, “Is Bennett Runkle still strong? Team Minnesota needs him. We’ll take all three of your kids, but we need Bennett.”
Koopman texted Bennett and spoke with his parents Scott and Becky the following day. This was his first year coaching competitive weightlifting, so he was learning on the fly at the high school level. He and Becky scrambled to figure out how to get Bennett eligible to compete and Koopman eligible to coach on the national level.
“We knew going into Nationals that we were not going to be in the best competitive shape,” Koopman admitted. “We had just gone from the Track and Field season into summer. Weightlifting is a different monster. We collectively decided we were going to do the best we could and go to Colorado and compete.”
“I couldn’t be prouder of Bennett.” Koopman continued. “We planned on making this a goal for next summer, and he messed around and made it a year early. He competed his butt off. He did the best he could, under the circumstances. Out of everything that we learned, what excites me the most is that we learned we can hang with the best in the country. We know what we are capable of. We know the growth that will come with more experience and time. We know that we belong on that stage with the best in the country. That is what I took away from our trip.”
Bennett Runkle, who will be a junior at Fulda this fall, competed at the US Weightlifting National Championships on Monday, June 22nd in Colorado Springs. He placed 19th out of 24 athletes. He finished with a total of 192 KG. He made his attempts at 81 KG and 111 KG in the snatch and clean and jerk. He missed what would have been personal records in both at 94 KG (207 pounds) and 118 KG (260 pounds).
Quick Facts and Information on Olympic Weightlifting.
• It is a club sport in Minnesota, done in the winter season.
• National level is year-round, but mostly spring and summer.
• Consists of two lifts, the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.
• Athletes are separated by weight class.
• You get three attempts at each lift, Snatch first, then Clean and Jerk.
• You cannot take weight off the bar. It only goes up.
• They take your heaviest completed Snatch and your heaviest completed Clean and Jerk to give you a total.
• At Nationals they have medals for each lift and the total at the state level is total only.
