Avery Trujillo weighs 112 pounds. The squat she just used to break a California state record was 181.9 pounds — more than one and a half times her own bodyweight, and she's only 13.

The Murrieta eighth-grader set the new USA Powerlifting state record in the junior female division last month, competing at a sanctioned meet in Moreno Valley.

  • 181.9 lbs — her new state-record squat
  • 159.8 lbs — the previous junior female record she broke
  • 22.1 lbs — the margin by which she beat it
  • 112 lbs — her own competition bodyweight

From backyard workouts to a state record

Trujillo, a student at Warm Springs Middle School, only started serious powerlifting training a year ago, at age 12. In that time she has gone from learning proper form to holding a statewide record in one of the sport's three core lifts.

Her coaches are her parents, Denise and Chad Rous, who work as personal trainers at Metroflex Gym in Murrieta. The family turned the sport into a shared project, with her parents overseeing the programming that took her from a beginner's squat to a record-breaking one in roughly twelve months.

Powerlifting's three competitive lifts — squat, bench press and deadlift — are judged on strict form, and a lift only counts toward a record if it passes that standard in front of certified officials. Trujillo's 181.9-pound squat was certified by USA Powerlifting, the sport's national governing body, as a new mark for lifters aged 13 to 15.

Why one record wasn't enough

Most athletes would treat a state record as the headline achievement of the year. Trujillo is already using hers as a stepping stone.

She has set her sights on USA Powerlifting's junior female bench press record, which currently sits just under 100 pounds, and is also working to push her squat total past 187 pounds. Her next scheduled target for both goals is the 2026 USA Powerlifting Thanksgiving Throwdown.

She weighs 112 pounds. The lift that just made her a state-record holder was 181.9 pounds.

Before that, she was already on the competition calendar for a SoCal Powerlifting meet in Irvine, part of a packed fall schedule that has her competing in sanctioned events roughly once a month.

A growing youth powerlifting scene

Trujillo's rise reflects a broader trend in competitive strength sports: more sanctioned meets are now building out youth and junior divisions, giving lifters as young as 13 a legitimate path to record books once reserved for adults.

For a sport built on strict judging and measurable numbers, that shift matters. A junior division record isn't a participation milestone — it's a verified, judged performance that stands until someone else beats it, regardless of the lifter's age.

Read the original report from the Press-Enterprise, and see current age-division records maintained by USA Powerlifting.

For now, the record books in California's junior female division read 181.9 pounds next to Avery Trujillo's name — and by Thanksgiving, she's aiming to make sure they read something even higher.