By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Five Osceola County athletes earned berths at the Class 2A state weightlifting tournament Wednesday during the 2A Section 6 meet at Harmony High and at the A-8 sectional at Lake Wales.

Harmony’s Hunter Perkins (230-230-460) at 139 pounds, Justin Kennedy (280-260-540) at 154 and Phillip Laird (320-290-610) at 183 all won sectional championships, guaranteeing a berth at the 2A state meet April 21.

St. Cloud’s Austin Ocasio (360-225-585) at 238 also won his sectional weight class to earn a spot at state, held at the Kissimmee Civic Center.

Poinciana’s Tim Williams (119) qualified at Lake Wales and will compete in the Class A meet April 20.

Harmony (43) won the team championship over St. Cloud (30). Osceola (9) was 10th and Celebration (3) and Liberty (3) tied for 11th place. Gateway did not have a team score.

The sectional champions and the top nine at-large lifters in each weight class are invited to the state meet.

Other lifters who placed high in their respective weight classes were St. Cloud’s Joe McGinley (325 pound total lift) at 119; Harmony’s Jacob Purcell, St. Cloud’s Dustin Longstreet and Celebration’s David Akins, all lifting 375 pounds, in the 129-pound weight class; St. Cloud’s Chase Butner (540) at 169 and Hans Schroeder (605) at 183; Liberty’s Caleb Lucien (520) at 199 and Osceola’s Randy Brown (615) at 219.

Harmony is the favorite to defend its championship at the Orange Belt Conference meet at St. Cloud Wednesday at 6 p.m.

“If we hit our lifts, we should win,” he said.

St. Cloud Coach Cory Aun said his lifters should enjoy success at the OBC meet, but it will be difficult to overtake the Longhorns.

“We could win as many as five weight classes and still be looking in from the outside,” Aun said. “Harmony has a lot of depth and might not win a class but get second and third in that class.”

The Florida High School Athletic Association will release the list of state qualifiers next week.