Five Bulldogs medal at Class 3A state weightlifting meet
St. Cloud’s boys weightlifting team had four lifters earn All-State honors at last week’s state meet in Lakeland. (Photo/St. Cloud High School)
Gateway junior Maxwell Garcon more than exceeded expectations on Friday, as he came from the No. 4 four seed to win claim the Class 3A triple jump championship Friday at the FHSAA state track and field meet Friday at the University of North Florida.
Garcon popped a seasonbest effort of 50’-¾”, the only jumper to exceed 50 feet in the competition. Northeast’s Tommie O’Hara, the second seed, finished second (49-8 ¼).
It was a busy afternoon for Garcon, the only Osceola County athlete to qualify in three individual events, Seeded seventh in the long jump claimed fifth place with a leap of 23’-8 ¼”. He capped off his busy day of competition with a 15th place finish in the high jump.
Panthers junior Ethan Antile, who also qualified in multiple events, medaled in the pole vault with a 7th place jump of 14’-3 ¼”. He also qualified in the javelin, where he finished in 17th. Gateway’s boys 4x800 meter relay team finished 17th. Overall, the Panthers finished the meet with 16 team points, good for 11th place in Class 3A.
Gateway had two girls qualifiers in Sarah Diaz (pole vault, 18th place) and Melissa Figueroa (triple jump, 16th).
In the 4A state meet on Saturday, Osceola County saw seven more athletes claim allstate honors in nine events. Osceola’s Cheyenne Pryce and St. Cloud’s Denzel Hawkins were double medalists; Pryce took fifth in the long jump (18--5) and 7th in the triple jump (36-8 ½); while Dawkins came up big in both the 110 hurdles (4th-14.32) and third in the 400 hurdles (54.42).
St. Cloud’s Kyla Perez in the 800 (7th-2:12.79) and Brooke Bonesteel in the pole vault (7th-9’-10”) reached the podium; as did Celebration’s Sofia Meadows, who came into the javelin as the 14th seed but threw a seasonbest 117’-3” to claim 4th place.
Osceola’s Nicole Oliveira (3rd long jump-18-5 ¼) and Korbyn Jones (4th in the triple jump – 37-4) were the other county medalists on Saturday.
Both the St. Cloud boys (16th) and Osceola girls (17th) posted top-20 team finishes; with Flanagan capturing the 4A boys title and Creekside taking the 4A girls championship.
The FHSAA state weightlifting championships were held at the Lakeland Civic Center on Thursday and St. Cloud walked away with five medals overall and a top five finish in the Olympic discipline.
Leading the charge for the Bulldogs was double medalist Jason Isaraphanich (139-pound weight class) who took fifth place overall in the Olympic (snatch and clean-and-jerk) and 6th in the traditional (clean-and-jerk and bench press). Jayden Green (129) was the highest St. Cloud place-winner, taking bronze in the Olympic. Jaden Perez (183) was fifth in the Olympic and barely missed joining Isaraphanich as a double medalist as he finished one off the podium in the traditional. Ayden Lopez (119) gave St. Cloud a fifth medal, by placing fifth in the traditional. Despite competing with a severely injured elbow, Santos Torres just missed out on medal party with a seventh-place finish in the 139 Traditional.
“Honestly we did not meet our expectations at states, but we were counting on everything going right,” veteran coach Cory Aun said. “For Jason to go double medalist was a plus, but we had a couple of other competitors who missed some lifts they normally hit.”
More than 115 schools sent representatives to the Class 3A meet. In additional to St. Cloud, Celebration, Poinciana, Harmony and Tohopekaliga all had qualifiers.
