journaltribune.com/sports

SportSE s t . 1 8 8 4 Y o r k C o u n t Y ’ s o n l Y d a i l Y n E w s p a p E r

BSunday

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Building her perfect body, lifeBy AL EDWARDS

Sports BIDDEFORD — On a warm June 6 day, Julia

Nyitray prepares for her deadlift as she wraps her hands around the barbell, grips it, gets into position and begins her ascent upward.

Her face is stoic as her eyes concentrate forward. She grunts, then the barbell and her torso begin to rise before she ends with every muscle in her toned body rippling as she straightens her body and holds the weight for a second.

Nyitray, unbeknownst to her, has just lifted 265 pounds.

“You just put 265 pounds on that? No. That was 250, right?” Nyitray asks her workout partner, Mike Archibald.

He quickly replies with a smile. “No, that was 265.”That deadlift just became Nyitray’s personal best,

besting her previous personal record of 255 pounds. “I can’t believe I just lifted that,” she said. “Are you

sure that was 265?”What was most impressive to Nyitray, as it was to

Archibald and trainer Scott Fleurant, isn’t the weight that was just lifted, but the person behind the lift.

Nyitray, who lives in Old Orchard Beach and is training for her first-ever body building and fitness competition, is 5-foot-2 and 115 pounds. That means she can lift more than double her body weight, which most people can’t come close to doing.

For Nyitray, it’s just another goal hit while she travels on her journey to next spring’s competition.

“I’m a pretty competitive person,” she said. “I

always push myself to get better.”That philosophy in life started young for Nyitray,

who grew up in Farmingdale. In high school she excelled at soccer while playing for Hall-Dale. She also was a competitive figure skater.

“I always love competing and being active,” said Nyitray, 24.

That continued into her college years when she played soccer for Thomas College while majoring in management. During that time, she started weight lifting to help her get into better shape for the college grind, and she was hooked.

Now, she either begins her day with a workout or

At left: Julia Nyitray, who lives in Old Orchard Beach, deadlifts a personal best of 265 pounds at Impact Fitness in Biddeford on June 6. Above: She works on her upper back while doing pullups. Nyitray is preparing for her first ever bodybuilding and fitness competition scheduled for April.

See Body PerfectionPAGE B2

Ask your dad about his favorite carBy TIM STENTIFORD

Special to the Journal Tribune“My first car is still my favorite car,” says Ben Hoeper

of Dover, N.H., “a beautiful 1936 Buick convertible with a rumble seat.”

At 95 years young, Hoeper remembers the vintage Buick as a new car. In fact, he worked at General Motors as a fresh-faced research engineer when the car was being manufactured.

“The car had a rumble seat,” he recalled, as his son Dick joked that his Dad probably used the fold up seat in the rear to go fishing.

Born July 23, 1917, Hoeper attended the University

of Cincinnati in his hometown. To pay for school, he enrolled in a five-year work-study program, which land-ed him in Detroit working at General Motors.

“I was a research engineer working on the ninth floor at GM’s world headquarters,” Hoeper said. “It was an exciting time to work in the automotive business and I was just getting started.”

Old Cahs

See Old CahsPAGE B2

A 1936 Buick convertible with

rumble seat, as seen in this period

advertisement.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

AL EDWARDS/Journal Tribune

York County fans can rejoice in this Red Sox teamBy CARL JOHNSON

Special to the Journal Tribune

Nobody gave this Boston Red Sox team much chance this year after last year’s horrendous season, which followed the

total collapse of the team at the end of the 2011 season.

Most so-called experts had them finishing last or near last in the American League East.

No one was particularly impressed when they didn’t go after big name free agents in the off season and instead signed players such as Shane Victorino, Johnny Gomes, Mike Napoli, Mike Carp, Stephen Drew and Ryan Dempster.

This week, the Red Sox began a road trip that took them to Tampa Bay, where they won 2 of 3. They then went to Baltimore. At the close of the Rays series, they were in first place in the Eastern Division of the American League, with a record

of 41-26, three games ahead of the second place Yankees.

Sixty-seven games into the season, this team – that was expected to be the doormat of the American League – had scored more runs than any other team in the league, had the best won-loss percentage in the entire American League, and was acting and playing like a serious con-tender for the pennant.

What is it that transformed this team, made up of basically the same players as last year, with the addition of a few seasoned but older, experi-enced players, into a winning ball club?

A lot has been said about chemistry, whatever that is. I happen to agree with those people who say great chemistry comes from winning games.

Show me the losing team with good chemistry and I’ll show you a bunch of losers. The game is always fun when you are winning and, if you’re a competitor, is never fun when you’re losing.

Manager John Farrell has been given a lot of credit for the change and probably rightly so. He has brought a positive, professional, hard-work-ing attitude to the team that has certainly con-tributed to the change.

If you see the Sox on a daily basis like I do, you have noticed the way this team seems to get along. More of them seem to be sprouting beards daily as some kind of badge, as announcers are quick to point out, they are all up on the top step of the dugout during the game, trying to gain an advantage and they are positive about their out-look when interviewed.

The bottom line is, they are having fun and working so hard because they are winning, and

why are they winning? This should come as no surprise to anyone. They are winning because they are pitching and hitting better than the other teams in the league. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the team that scores the most runs and holds the opposition to the least runs, is going to win the most games.

John Lester, Clay Buchholz and Felix Dubront were 12-0 in April this year. Buchholz is 9-0 now with a 1.71 earned run average, Lester is 6-3 with a 4.12 ERA. Last year, through the same date, Lester was 3-4 with a 4.57 ERA and Buchholz was 7-2 but had a 5.38 ERA.

Those “older” players the Sox picked up are not doing too badly either. Napoli has proven he can play first base and had 27 RBIs in April to

See Baseball WorldPAGE B4

Baseball World