![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.rowan.edu\/today\/data\/images\/news\/prof.jpg\")
<\/div>\nChris Garcia won the title of “Rowan’s Strongest Student” during a competition presented by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity<\/p>\n
Chris Garcia, a tight end on Rowan University’s football team, is no stranger to being the best.\u00a0 He was a part of Rowan’s 9-1 football team this year. At Montgomery High School, he was an All-State football star his senior year. And at Rowan, he is known by his teammates as a strong competitor.<\/p>\n
Recently, Garcia showed his strength another way. He won “Rowan’s Strongest Student” competition sponsored by Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.\u00a0 To gain the honor, Garcia bench-pressed 365 pounds for two repetitions.<\/p>\n
Garcia, a sophomore from Belle Meade, is not one to brag, but he never doubted he could win the strength competition.<\/p>\n
“I’m one of the better benchers on the [football] team,” he said with a smile.<\/p>\n
He is also a strong student. A Rowan Scholar-Athlete, Garcia has a 3.4 GPA and is majoring in Health & Exercise Science in the College of Education<\/p>\n
His high school football and basketball couches taught him about having a good work ethic, he said.<\/p>\n
Garcia, who is 6-2 and 225 pounds, weight trains regularly but did not intentionally train for “Rowan’s Strongest Student” competition.<\/p>\n
“I was playing an intramural basketball game downstairs and, after the game, a friend of mine on the other team said he was competing. So I went upstairs with him to compete just for fun. I already knew I was stronger than him,” he said.<\/p>\n
Garcia began weight training in eighth grade and now it is something he enjoys in his spare time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“Lifting relieves stress, and clears my head,” he said.<\/p>\n
It also helps him focus on his long-term goals, such as his degree, which includes a special education endorsement.<\/p>\n
Garcia is involved in other activities off the field, such as the Health & Exercise Science Club and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n
He has weight lifting goals, too.<\/p>\n
“I hope that by the time I graduate, I will be able to lift 430 pounds,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2007 – 2008 Tri-Captain Chris Garcia Commits to Weight Training at Rowan Showing strength: Rowan’s Garcia shines in the weight room…and in the classroom April 07, 2011 Chris Garcia won the title of “Rowan’s Strongest Student” during a competition presented by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity Chris Garcia, a tight end on Rowan University’s football team, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}