Roseville Area High School senior and Bethel PSEO student Sierra Sedlacek powerlifts competitively and breaks records while forming relationships and building character.

By Elle Young

Sierra Sedlacek feels exhausted, but keeps her grip on the barbell. If she can bring 341.7 pounds up to thigh level – hips and shoulders locked, knees bent – and maintain control while returning the bar to the floor, she’ll have a new personal record. However, this PR isn’t being attempted in her typical Roseville gym, but at the 2023 USA Powerlifting High School Nationals in South Carolina. 

After she brings her hands around the metal bar, Sedlacek starts moving her hips forward. The plates leave the floor as she inches the weights higher, slow and steady, until finally she gets them all the way up. After reaching an upright posture, Sedlacek returns the 341.7 pounds – roughly the same weight as an adult male gorilla – to the ground. She jumps with excitement before running back to hug her coach while her team and the crowd cheer. 

Bonilla Hirdman, a member of the Powerlifting Club, has known Sedlacek for about a year and is also inspired by her, impressed by the ambitious standards that Sedlacek sets for herself and by how committed she is, not just in powerlifting but in her everyday life. 

Sedlacek plans to continue at Bethel next year to double major in biokinetics and music. She plans to go to graduate school to become a physical therapist. While there is a professional circuit for powerlifting, it is not an NCAA sport, meaning it cannot be competed in at the collegiate level. Nonetheless, Sedlacek hopes to start a powerlifting club at Bethel.