Who needs a prom?

Who needs a prom when you can be the queen of your own dance?

Sarah Detlaff made a date with destiny and, along with nine other Thompson Falls student-athletes, attended the Montana Powerlifting high school championships at Capital High School in Helena Saturday. And, although she gave up going to her last high school prom to attend the meet and the awards ceremony immediately thereafter, she ended up being crowned queen of the powerlifting ball in Helena anyway due to another dazzling lifting performance.

Not just another good powerlifter, Detlaff could now be considered one of the best, if not the best, of all time in Montana.

The Thompson Falls senior, one year after setting new Montana high school weight-class records in the squat, deadlift and combined categories, did her lifting magic again in Helena. Competing once again at 132 pounds, Detlaff broke her own records in the squat (with a best lift of 260 pounds this year opposed to 240 last year), the deadlift (315 after 305 last year) and in the total weight lifted (665 this time after 640 in 2018).

In addition to winning first place in the 132 pound category, Sarah also was honored for the best squat pound-for-pound among all women competitors, for the most weight lifted in the women's divisions regardless of weight, and was also awarded the meet's overall Championship Belt in recognition of her being named the best pound-for-pound lifter in the entire women's division in Helena.

Thompson Falls powerlifting coach Jared Koskela, who is also the head football and softball coach for the Blue Hawks, said Detlaff's reputation preceded her in Helena after what she accomplished last spring. "I had a coach come up to me and ask if Sarah was here again," he said. "The other teams knew about her this year and were not too excited about competing against her."

A proven powerhouse lifter, Detlaff did not necessarily enjoy missing her senior prom back at Thompson Falls High School that night, but the lifting competition reset her priorities. Especially when she did both events, which also happened to run on the same day, last year when she rushed back home to go to the 2018 prom.

"I wanted to stay for the awards ceremony this time, I figured this would be a good way to end my senior year," she said. "It's too bad they had them on the same day again – and I think it hurt us as a team because some of our team stayed home for the prom – but it was a lot of fun for those of us who went."

Of course, Sarah ended up having the most fun of any of the Thompson Falls lifters. Although Detlaff was the undeniable star of the meet for Thompson Falls, Koskela said he took a total of 10 lifters to Helena, and crowned two other state champions in addition to Sarah. Edward Lee won first place in the Men's 132 pound division and Jody Detlaff (Sarah's sophomore sister) won first place in the Women's 165 pound division.

Luke Comerford, Nathan Ostwald, Cameron Lee, Ben Beauchman, Keegan Kelly, Seth Alarcon, and Gage Fuhrman were the other Thompson Falls student-athletes competing in Helena.

Oh, and several of the Falls lifters did speed back to Thompson Falls in time to attend the prom, for those of you who were wondering.