By Matt Vines March 14, 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The return of LSUS Weightlifting to the college national stage was a memorable one as the program competed at The Arnold for the first time since 2020.
But while a women’s team of mostly freshmen will certainly remember their fifth-place finish, the national championships had a deeper effect on one particular lifter in general.
Sophomore Shayla Kanemitsu was awarded a national scholarship from the OC3 Foundation, a foundation established in the memory of weightlifter Oscar Chaplin III.
“I started crying immediately because I honestly didn’t know if I’d be able to come back (to LSUS) financially next semester,” said Kanemitsu, who started at LSUS this spring. “That reassurance of, ‘Yes, you can come back and continue here,’ -- that means a lot.
“Our team had an enjoyable experience at nationals as we competed and cheered on our teammates. We made memories as a team.”
Kanemitsu hails from Lahaina, Hawaii, the epicenter of the Maui wildfires in August of 2023 that killed 102 and displaced thousands. The area is still on the road to recovery as basic services like water, sewer, and electricity are still being restored.
Kanemitsu played a key role in the LSUS women’s finish by scoring 19 points in the 59-kilogram weight class. Teammate Grace Gonzalez-Liz also added 19 points in that class as one of four LSUS freshmen of the six female lifters the Pilots sent to nationals.
Freshmen Enyjai Tyson (22 points), Savannah Bolden (20 points) and Hannah St. Gerard (20 points) led the way for an LSUS squad that beat household names like Florida State and Texas.
Graduate student Kela Kauha’aha’a, who is also the team’s assistant coach, scored 11 points in her final collegiate contest.
“The women were the top finisher among partial teams (a full team is 10 lifters),” said LSUS weightlifting coach Aaron Adams. “It was pretty cool to see Shayla be presented with that scholarship because she deserves it and has been working really hard.
“We did really well, and with the way recruiting is going, we should bring a full team to next year’s nationals.”
The LSUS team got some love from commentator Mark Henry, the former professional wrestler who was an Olympic weightlifter.
Henry has a relationship with LSUS through director Dr. Kyle Pierce and Olympian Kendrick Farris, and Adams said Henry was excited to see LSUS back on the national stage.
“It was crazy to hear the strongest man who has ever lived talking about our program and how strong our girls are,” Adams said, adding he spoke with Henry off camera at the event. “The stories he was telling about his relationship LSUS were awesome.”
The LSUS men took its first steps on the national stage as well with a 12th-place finish.
Two Pilot lifters scored as Thomas Niss (nine points) and Dylan Satkunam (seven points) accounted for LSUS’s 16 total points.
“The men had a tough performance, but our entire team is freshmen with most of those in deep weight classes,” Adams said. “But they are freshmen in a new program, and it was fun to see them on this stage.”
The nationals performance sets the stage for a reinvigorated college program that didn’t have any athletes 18 months ago.
Adams said he expects to have perhaps upwards of 25 men’s and women’s lifters once his second recruiting class arrives this fall.
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