Kirkland teen Connor Peasley likes to pick things up and put them back down. At least that’s how he describes it.

The 17-year-old Inglemoor High School junior may not look like the typical weight lifter from a casual glance, but he’s got the credentials to prove it. Peasley has national and international powerlifting records to his name – all thanks largely to an accident.

When he was in eighth grade Peasley got a stress fracture in his back. Stuck in a plastic back brace for six months his physical therapist told him he could lift light weights. As someone who’d been lifting and worked with gym machines in the past, it was a way to stay as active as he could with the injury.

“Once I got out of that I noticed I was able to do a lot more than everybody in my grade,” said Pealsey. “In ninth grade, after I’ve been doing a bunch of stuff with free weights, I went online and looked and saw the records and that I could beat them if I wanted to. I decided to go out and do a competition and I tried to break some records my first competition, but by my second one I started doing it.”

Peasley found competitions online, and learned more about the sport in magazines. He went to his first competition in 2006 in Kennewick.

“We drove to Kennewick for me to pick things up and put them back down,” he said laughing. But obviously it worked. The teen, who works out in his gym, got things going and hasn’t looked back.

“For his birthday we got him rubber mats for the whole garage and slowly have been upgrading the equipment because he’s been lifting more weight,” said Peasley’s dad Mark. “We kind of had to go from cheap stuff to the more expensive stuff to keep him from getting hurt.”

In that first competition, Peasley said he hit the 205 weight mark, but then started noticing he was adding sometimes up to five pounds a week to his total. But as an ever busy teenager, there are spikes and dips to what he lifts, depending on whether it’s wrestling, track and the summer swim season.

In powerlifting there are three types of lifts, bench pressing, dead lifting and squatting. During competitions, dead lifting requires holding the bar above the chest, getting it completely still and then lifting, something which lowered Peasley’s first results. He said it didn’t take long however to overcome that obstacle.

“The most I’ve ever benched is 320, the most I’ve ever dead lifted is 450 and the most I’ve ever squatted is 320. I’m not much of a squatter. I haven’t tested reps in a while, because I’ve been doing different stuff,” he said.

He set the national record for his age group in November 2008 with a bench press of 245 pounds. In April 2010 at the Northwest region powerlifting championships in Sacramento, Calif. he lifted 365 pounds in the dead lift and 255 pounds in the bench.

The Eagle Scout and lifelong member of the Woodinville Boy Scout troop, where his dad was his Scoutmaster, said he likes the fact it’s a sport where he sees results.

“I’m always just liked lifting. It’s been fun for me,” he said. “A lot of people see it as a tedious task but I like to see results. I like the idea of getting stronger and feeling stronger. I just really enjoy everything about it and I like how it makes me feel.”

For the last several weeks though, the weights have taken a back seat to Peasley’s after high school plans. He is currently in New York attending a week long leadership camp at the United States Military Academy in West Point. Peasley said he hopes to go to West Point and join the infantry.

“I’ve been interested in West Point since the eighth grade. I learned about it in my history class and kind of researched it and found thats really what I want to do,” he said. “I already thought about going into the military, but I saw that as an opportunity to go to the top of my abilities. I learned about the leadership camp from a couple of guys that go to school. One of my brothers friends went to it and it’s kind of like and introduction to West Point. They evaluate you, you evaluate them. It’s just to see if they want you and if you want to go there.”

Originally, Mark Peasley said, his son had applied to the camp in December, and didn’t get in. But Pealsey found out just a week ago that a spot had opened up and was asked if he still wanted to attend.

“The idea behind the whole summer seminar is they pick the top 1,000 candidates from across the US and offer them spots in the summer to go there. If they do, it’s a pretty complex process,” said Mark Peasley. “They go by scholastics first, then physical fitness and then leadership.”

While he still has a year left of high school, the camp will go a long way to helping Pealsey figure out if West Point is the place for him. If so, he hopes to continue lifting and who knows, maybe even join the team there.