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Suwannee’s weightlifting team won the Class 1A state title in the Olympic on Saturday in Lakeland. (COURTESY)
LAKELAND — Another state weightlifting meet, another state title for Suwannee.
The Bulldogs captured the Class 1A Olympic team title Saturday at the RP Funding Center, scoring 49 points to easily outdistance runners-up South Sumter and Keystone Heights, which finished with 29.
Suwannee, which won the snatch team title a year ago and was second in traditional, also placed second in traditional Saturday with 35 points to Keystone’s 41.
“It was a special day,” Suwannee coach Dan Marsee said. “Our kids came prepared and we hit the lifts we needed to.
“The kids really performed well.”
They performed well enough to give themselves a chance at a title sweep. However, a few calls on some lifts didn’t go the Bulldogs’ way.
One of those, Marsee said, was on senior Brandon Robinson’s final attempt at clean and jerk of 325 pounds.
“Had he got that lift, he would have won state in both Olympic and traditional,” Marsee said. “It could have gone either way, it was a judgment call. It was close.”
Instead, Robinson had to settle for a pair of runner-up finishes in the 219-pound class, 15 pounds behind Keystone’s Larry Jeffries III in traditional with a 630 total and 15 pounds behind South Sumter’s Jackson Sovercool in Olympic with a 540 total.
That second-place finish was one of 11 medals the Bulldogs racked up in Olympic to win the team title.
Chris Gonzalez (119 pounds, 350 total), Marquavious Owens (154, 485), Sam Wainwright (183, 575) and Will Wainwright (199, 590) all won individual titles. Will Wainwright cleared runner-up Trevor Oswald of Bozeman by 75 pounds, while Sam Wainwright was 50 pounds ahead and Gonzalez had a 25-pound cushion.
Owens, though, edged South Sumter’s Bobby Hill, the defending state champion, by five pounds.
“He really had the toughest battle going in that we knew was going to be really tough,” Marsee said of Owens. “That was a defending state champion that we beat. He really performed at a high level.”
Owens and Sam Wainwright also won traditional individual titles. Owens topped Hill by 15 pounds with a 560 total, while Wainwright was 20 pounds ahead of Keystone’s Landon Hovseplan with a 630 total.
Also scoring points in Olympic for SHS were Randy Garcia (119, 310), Kaderian Ivey (154, 435) and Alex Mabey (238, 485), who all finished third; Isiah Love (169, 425) in fifth; and Demontay Brown (139, 375) and Taylon Johns (183, 470) in sixth.
“Alex Mabey really came on strong,” Marsee said. “He really came out of nowhere. He’s really been coming great the end of the year.”
Joining Owens and Sam Wainwright in medaling in the traditional event were Gonzalez (375 total), Will Wainwright (665) and Robinson, all placing second; Ivey (520) in fourth, William Garcia (129, 430) in fifth and Brown (450) in sixth.