LIVE OAK — Entering her senior season, Jordyn Rodriguez had accomplished a lot in her Suwannee weightlifting career.
She had been a part of state championship teams and was coming off a state title sweep individually as well.
There was one prize, though, that Rodriguez still had her sights on, other than a state championship repeat. So when Baker County visited SHS in November for the annual Dog and Cat Fight, Rodriguez was ready.
It turns out, she was at her absolute best.
In helping SHS sweep the meet, Rodriguez hit all nine of her lifts, setting personal records and school records in every event: snatch (130), clean and jerk (165) and bench (145) for the 119 weight class as well as traditional and Olympic titles.
“That’s a tough environment to do it in, that time of the year, especially early,” Suwannee coach Dan Marsee said.
That early success, those big lifts, came with a big reward too.
The Dog and Cat Fight includes a WWE-style championship belt that goes to the top lifter at the meet. Fresh off her perfect day, Rodriguez got the prize.
“That was a really, really, really nice moment,” Rodriguez said. “I had been striving for that belt for the past four years really. Being able to win that belt was a big achievement for me.”
That prize and a healthy dose of perspective helped Rodriguez, who is the Lake City Reporter’s Girls Weightlifter of the Year, overcome some disappointment three months later in Lakeland.
Coming off that state sweep as a junior, Rodriguez expected to repeat.
“That was definitely the goal,” she said. “It did put a lot of pressure on me. I was the one being targeted because everybody knew I was the previous winner, so it did put pressure on me.”
Instead, a snag that surfaced mid-year, after that perfect meet against Baker County, ended up costing Rodriguez that goal. She ended up finishing with a pair of runner-up finishes at state.
Marsee said Rodriguez has been beating herself up over it ever since.
Rodriguez, though, said she was disappointed at first. But she has since come to a different realization since the Class 1A meet in February.
“I know what it is like to be the last lifter, I know what it’s like to win it all,” she said about her titles as a junior. “I just changed my perspective and am grateful and thankful for what I’ve experienced. I was happy for someone else to experience that.”
Doctors Charter’s Haylee St. Hilaire and Rutherford’s Aleiyah Willett still almost didn’t get to experience that.
Despite not being as sharp as she was at the Dog and Cat Fight, Rodriguez still had her chance and pushed both title winners, finishing in a tie with Hilaire in Olympic but losing on a tiebreaker, while Willett edged her by 10 pounds — or one lift — in traditional.
“You now you’re a special athlete when you’re upset about finishing second in the state,” Marsee said. “I told her, ‘Even not on your best day, you’re one lift away from being a state champion. Nowhere near your best day, that’s a special accomplishment about your abilities.’”
She still had that chance due to her attention to detail.
Marsee said she is a “technician” when it comes to weightlifting, studying it, practicing it, fine tuning her craft.
That flawless technique, he said, has allowed her to reach the potential that he first saw four years ago when she entered the program as a freshman.
It’s a program she had been yearning to become a part of after watching her sister, Breanna, enjoy the benefits of what Marsee and former SHS coach Brittney Shearer had built.
“I could tell how much she enjoyed it,” Rodriguez said, adding her sister kept telling her to do it. “I was just so happy to be able to say it’s my time, I get to do weightlifting.”
It was her time, too.
Rodriguez qualified for state in the snatch as a freshman and both Olympic and traditional events as a sophomore before winning the two titles as a junior and the runner-up finishes as a senior.
It’s what Marsee knew was possible early on.
“You can always kind of tell which ones have a chance of being special,” he said.
And while Rodriguez became a state champion and a state runner-up, Marsee said she’s not the strongest lifter in the state. Rather, she is able to rely on that technique to get past other lifters who may actually surpass her in brute strength.
“She’s able to manipulate, with her technique, to overcompensate for certain areas she’s weaker in,” he added. “When your technique is that flawless and you’re able to keep the bar close to you, you can pass by a lot of people.”
Rodriguez points to trusting the process that Marsee has laid out in the Suwannee program and her faith for getting her to where she has gotten. It’s a faith that has also helped her move past the inconsistency in the results down the stretch.
Marsee said it’s part of the ups and downs that come with weightlifting, adding at times lifters get certain weights in their heads and it basically causes the “yips.”
“It’s kind of like being a hitter in baseball,” he said. “You go through some slumps. You can start questioning some of the things you’re doing.”
Those struggles, Rodriguez said, were due to outside noise. A heavy school load and a job stressed the time management aspect that she said is vital to succeeding. Add in some rumors about a girl dropping down into her class and Rodriguez admitted to being intimidated.
“I wish I had never let that happen because that set me back,” she said. “I was just worried about losing, which it shouldn’t be about that. I should have just focused on myself and getting the gains I needed.”
Despite those hiccups, Rodriguez has gained plenty from weightlifting. It’s a very social sport, she said, which has turned into countless friends, including competitors who cheer each other on. It has also made her a better leader, helping young Suwannee lifters see the standard that is part of the program’s success.
And that is why Rodriguez, despite not repeating, not achieving that goal she had set, also points to that state meet as one she will never forget.
There, once she completed her last lift on the bench, Marsee told her to soak the journey in. And also, take a moment and give a wave to her parents in the crowd.
“There’s actually a picture of it,” Rodriguez said. “Man, just tears. Happy tears, sad tears, it was just really amazing.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
101: Sakiya Merriex
Columbia, senior
Reached the medal stand at the Class 2A state meet with a fourth-place finish in Olympic (220 total) after placing second in District 2-3A and third in Region 1-2A.
110: Courtney Neal
Suwannee, senior
Swept District 4-1A and Region 1-1A titles in traditional and Olympic before placing third in Olympic (tied postseason-best 235 total) and seventh in traditional (tied postseason-best 230 total) at the Class 1A state meet.
119: Jordyn Rodriguez
Suwannee, senior
The LCR’s Girls Weightlifter of the Year swept District 4-1A and Region 1-1A titles in traditional and Olympic before finishing runner-up in both events at the Class 1A state meet with totals of 290 and 275 that tied her bests of the postseason.
129: Brianna Woods
Suwannee, junior
Reached the medal stand at the Class 1A state meet with a third-place finish in traditional (postseason-best 315 total) after winning the District 4-1A title and placing third in Region 1-1A; also won a district title in Olympic and finished sixth at regionals before finishing eighth at state with a postseason-best 260 total.
139: Morgan Brennan
Branford, senior
Swept District 7-1A titles in traditional and Olympic, placed sixth in traditional and fourth in Olympic in Region 2-1A, and placed ninth in Olympic (postseason-best 290 total) and 13th in traditional (postseason-best 290 total) at the Class 1A state meet.
154: Katherine Lansford
Suwannee, senior
Reached the medal stand at the Class 1A state meet with a pair of third-place finishes in traditional and Olympic (tied postseason-best 320 total) after sweeping District 4-1A titles and finishing runner-up in both events in Region 1-1A, with a postseason-best 345 total in traditional coming at regionals.
169: Emaysa Blue
Suwannee, senior
Won the District 4-1A title in Olympic and was runner-up in Region 1-1A with postseason-best totals of 270 before finishing 10th at state; was runner-up at districts in traditional (postseason-best 315 total) and placed third at regionals before finishing 12th at state.
183: Calinn Daniel
Suwannee, sophomore
Swept District 4-1A titles in traditional and Olympic and finished third in both events in Region 1-1A before medaling at the Class 1A state meet with a fifth-place finish in traditional (tied postseason-best 335 total) and a sixth-place finish in Olympic (postseason-best 295 total).
199: Felicity May
Suwannee, sophomore
Won the District 4-1A title in Olympic and placed fifth in Region 1-1A before finishing 10th at the Class 1A state meet with a postseason-best 290 total; also placed third at districts in traditional before placing sixth at regionals and 18th at state with a pair of postseason-best totals of 290.
Unlimited: Melanee Jones
Suwannee, senior
Reached the medal stand at the Class 1A state meet with a fifth-place finish in Olympic (postseason-best 290 total) following a District 4-1A title and a third-place finish in Region 1-1A; also finished seventh at state in traditional (tied postseason-best 355) after winning another district and placing fourth at regionals.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Dan Marsee, Suwannee
Led the Bulldogs to their seventh straight district title, a pair of runner-up finishes at regionals and a pair of third-place finishes at the Class 1A state meet. In total, 15 of Marsee’s lifters qualified for the state meet, with the Bulldogs taking home nine medals.