Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
CORUNNA, MI – Hannah Dean was just looking to get a little stronger to help her increase her shot put and discus distances in track and field, and her brother Aaron told her that she needed to start lifting weights.
The Corunna junior really took to weight lifting, enjoyed her time in the weight room, and became stronger than even she could imagine.
So she decided to test her strength against other girls from across the state, and the result was a state championship.
Dean won the state title for the 220-pound weight class March 7 at Whitmore Lake High School.
She won with a lift of 270 pounds in the squat, 175 pounds in the bench press, which is a new state record, and 320 pounds in the dead lift, for a total weight of 755 pounds.
“I am very surprised I won,” Dean said. “I could have told you going into state that I would have benched this much, or squatted that much. It shocked me that I did that much weight.”
Hannah’s mother, Lori Dean, was more proud than shocked at what her daughter accomplished. “I’m so proud of her,” she said. “Her brother got her into lifting; they just wanted to get stronger for track because they are both throwers, and she took to it.
“What’s made me proud, is that nobody told her she had to do this,” Lori added. “She faces a lot of adversity doing this – she gets teased by the boys. But she knows that she can beat them in lifting.”
Chris Curtiss, Hannah’s coach, couldn’t be more pleased with how well Hannah performed during the course of the season. “Prior to the state meet last year, she had only been to one meet, and that was regionals,” Curtis said.
“She went to the state meet, and her doing as well as she did there, that fueled the fire. And I told her she could be a state champion next year, and she did just that. We have been using her as an example, not only to the guys on our football team, because I’m the coach, but to other athletes. “Number one, she was there every single day, number two, she did exactly what her coaches wanted her to do, and the third part to this, is she worked as hard as she could, and she became successful because of that.”
And she is proving she can beat all the girls, too.“She didn’t know you could compete,” Lori Dean said. “She trained all winter, and her coach came to her and said there were regional and state competitions, and she wanted to do it.”
Hannah Dean says she loves lifting. “I like that it is an individual sport, because that is is all on me if I do good,” she said. “It is more of a sport for me now, because I have done well. But more of training to get better in the shot and discus.”
And her shot and discus are improving. She puts just over 31 feet and has thrown the discus 120 feet in practice.