LIVE OAK — Heading into the Class 1A state meet in Lakeland, the plan was for Sam Wainwright to set a new state record.
But after Navarre’s Connor Mathews edged the previous mark the night before in an iffy decision to count the lift, all eyes were on Wainwright when he entered the RP Funding Center.
That attention had Suwannee coach Dan Marsee a little worried.
“There was so much pressure,” Marsee said as other coaches and officials across the state wanted to see Wainwright hit in an undisputed clean lift. “We knew going in we were going to take the shot. We just didn’t know the magnitude it was going to be.”
When the senior standout went to take his attempt at the mark — 380 pounds to surpass the 375 Mathews had hit the night before and the 370 that had been the record for eight years — the entire gym stopped to watch.
But the pressure wasn’t a problem for Wainwright, nor a slight loss of his balance on the attempt at 380 pounds in the clean and jerk as he recovered to hoist the new state record lift at the 199-pound weight class.
The extra attention didn’t bother Wainwright, the Lake City Reporter’s Boys Weightlifter of the Year. In fact, he said it gave him some extra motivation.
“I actually got to show off some,” he said as he said the state championship meet and the larger crowd was his favorite meet of the year. “I knew I was going to go in and beat everybody pretty good.
“Just going in and beating, whooping everybody.”
He did too. Behind that record lift as well as one in the snatch where he cleared 280 pounds, Wainwright eased his way to a pair of individual state titles beating his closest competitors by 145 pounds in the Olympic competition and 125 pounds in traditional.
In fact, while Wainwright enjoyed shining on the big stage, he also wasn’t overly pleased with his state performance. He missed one attempt in all three lifts, leaving weight — and higher records — on the platform.
“I wanted more weight,” he said. “That kind of put me down. I was supposed to break it by a lot more than I did. I had a couple mistakes, but it was all right. I still broke both of them.”
Dominating the competition was nothing new for Wainwright, who wasn’t really challenged all year.
At the Region 2-1A meet at Suwannee, Wainwright was 150 pounds clear of teammate Jadarius Cherry in Olympic and 160 pounds ahead of the runner-up in traditional. It was the same in the District 5-1A meet as he topped Cherry by 160 pounds in traditional and 115 pounds in Olympic.
He also wasn’t really challenged by the past either.
While never really aiming to leave his mark all over Suwannee’s record board, he certainly did so.
Of the five possible marks — snatch, bench, clean and jerk, traditional total and Olympic total — at each weight class, Wainwright holds 12 school marks, set over the past three years. This year he set all but one of the records at 199 pounds, missing just the bench which his brother, Will, set in the first meet of the year.
That follows up on setting all five records at 183 pounds a year ago and three records — snatch, clean and jerk and Olympic total — at 169 pounds as a sophomore.
“I never really planned on breaking them, it’s just some meets I felt good and went up and hit them,” he said, noting that some of previous records weren’t that high.
That is no longer the case. Not after Wainwright was through.
“He’s been special since the day he’s walked on campus so he’s been able to break a lot of records,” Marsee said. “They’re at a point now, where if you break one of our records, you’re probably one of the tops in the state, if not the top.”
That may not even do Wainwright justice.
He will be competing next week in Pittsburgh at USA Weightlifting’s national meet. There, Wainwright hopes to realize his ultimate goal: making a national team.
“I want USA across my chest,” he said. “I think that’d be cool. Just to get the free gear they give out, just to tell my kids in the future, ‘I was on the national team.’
“I think this is my best chance at doing it this year.”
Marsee, though, believes Wainwright has only just begun to scratch the surface of what he can become.
Describing Wainwright as a “complete lifter,” Marsee said he has no weakness. He combines natural strength with quickness and flexibility that make him great.
Combined that with the thirst to be great and Wainwright can reach new heights.
In some ways he already has.
After the national meet, Wainwright will be competing in college at Mars Hill University in North Carolina. He is the first male lifter the school has given a full scholarship for just weightlifting. Others are competing in multiple sports.
“He has a legitimate chance to be an Olympian one day,” Marsee said. “Making the Olympic team is like winning the lottery, of course, but he will make international teams next year.”
That is a goal that Wainwright set for himself once he got into Olympic lifting. Marsee said it also is a result of the laser focus Wainwright has on the sport. While others, including other Suwannee standouts like his brother Will, are athletes in other sport as well as weightlifters, Wainwright decided after his sophomore year to just lift.
Wainwright said that singular focus began after disappointment in his sophomore campaign. Expecting to sweep his way to titles that year, he instead came in second in the traditional event and was fourth in the snatch.
“That kind of sparked something to where all I wanted to do was focus to where I wouldn’t lose again,” he said.
He didn’t. At least not at Suwannee, blitzing his way through district, regional and state meets his last two years.
But in addition to that focus, Marsee said the success the past two years also was a result of Wainwright, who he said “lives and dies weightlifting” and has become a true student of the sport, fully trusting the coaches.
Talented lifters like Wainwright crave more and more weight. But that isn’t the right process to reaching the end goals, Marsee said. Rather there need to be days where you don’t throw as much weight, both to keep your technique clean as well as to allow your body a chance to recover.
That started to register as well.
“He started to really trust the process last year and you could really see the difference that occurred this year when he didn’t take the approach of more is better,” Marsee said.
ALL-AREA TEAM
119: Chris Gonzalez
Suwannee, junior
Won Class 1A state titles in traditional and Olympic with 400 and 365 totals, respectively. Also swept District 5 and Region 2 titles, tying his season-best 400 total in traditional at regionals and posting a season-best 370 total in Olympic at regionals.
129: Will Garcia
Suwannee, senior
Class 1A state runner-up in traditional with a 440 total and placed fourth in Olympic with a 365 total. Region 2 and District 5 champion in Olympic with season-best 385 totals; runner-up in traditional at both regionals and districts with a season-best 460 total at regionals.
139: Demontay Brown
Suwannee, senior
Placed fourth in both traditional and Olympic at the Class 1A state meet with 480 and 395 totals, with his 395 in Olympic tying his season best. District 5 champion in both events — with a season-best 385 total in traditional — before placing second in Olympic and third in traditional in Region 2.
154: Marquavious Owens
Suwannee, senior
Won Class 1A state titles in both traditional and Olympic with 580 and 515 totals, which were both season bests. Swept District 5 and Region 2 titles in both events as well.
169: Isiah Love
Suwannee, senior
Placed fifth in Olympic at the Class 1A state meet with a season-best 470 total and also placed seventh in traditional with a season-best 525 total. District 5 champion in both events; third in Olympic and sixth in traditional in Region 2.
183: Tyson Yaxley
Columbia, senior
Class 2A state runner-up in traditional with a season-best 645 total. District 3 champion and Region 1 runner-up.
199: Sam Wainwright
Suwannee, senior
The LCR’s Boys Weightlifter won Class 1A state titles in traditional and Olympic with season-best totals of 735 and 660, which included a new state record in the clean and jerk with a lift of 380 pounds. He dominated both events at state, winning traditional by 125 pounds and Olympic by 145 pounds. It capped off a postseason where he also swept District 5 and Region 2 titles.
219: Will Wainwright
Suwannee, senior
Won Class 1A state titles in traditional and Olympic with 720 and 600 totals. Also swept District 5 and Region 2 titles, posting season-best totals of 760 in traditional and 630 in Olympic at districts.
238: Alex Mabey
Suwannee, senior
Placed fifth in traditional and sixth in Olympic at the Class 1A state meet with 630 and 525 totals. Tied his season-best 630 total in traditional for a runner-up finish in Region 2 and he also posted a season-best 535 total in Olympic for a third-place finish at regionals; swept District 5 titles.
Unlimited: James Dimauro
Fort White, junior
Class 1A state runner-up in Olympic with a 510 total and also placed ninth in traditional with a 620 total. Posted a season-best 520 total in Olympic to win the Region 2 title following a District 5 title; also won a district title in traditional with a season-best 625 total before placing sixth at regionals.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Dan Marsee, Suwannee
Marsee is the LCR’s Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season after leading the Bulldogs to second straight Class 1A state title in Olympic as well as a state title in traditional. Suwannee had 22 lifters qualify for state across both events, with 13 reaching the medal stand and bringing home 21 total medals. It capped off a postseason where Suwannee swept District 5-1A titles and Region 2-1A titles.
HONORABLE MENTION: Suwannee: Randy Garcia, Mark Garcia, Kamden Lang, Christian Socarras, Kodi Lang, JD Cherry, Justice Leggett; Columbia: Javon Bradley; Fort White: Lecosta Byrd; Branford: Damian Green