Horns are heavyweights

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Horns are heavyweights

Sports

Wednesday, 09 March 2011 13:27

News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan

Harmony’s Austin Tapp receives some encouragement from a teammate as he competes at 154 pounds at the season-opening meet at Osceola High School last week.

Harmony has the talent to defend conference title
By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
Osceola County sent two weightlifters to the state meet last year (one returns as a senior), but that trip for this year’s qualifiers will be much shorter, as the state meet will be at the Kissimmee Civic Center next month. Harmony
The Longhorns have a three-year string of Orange Belt Conference championships to defend under Coach John Wallauer, Jr. (and an active two-year unbeaten streak in regular-season meets), and while the program watched a handful of OBC champions and runners-up graduate, there’s still a ton of top returners back that make Harmony the team the rest of the county’s chasing.
Dominic DeMunno is the county’s most decorated returning lifter; he won the OBC and was fifth at the state meet at 129 pounds and will go at 139 pounds this year. Trey Bartlett was third at the sectional meet and will spend the season sorting out the 169-pound class with C.J. Clayton.
Other top lifters include sophomores Hunter Perkins (129) and Hans Schroeder (183), junior Austin Tapp (154) and senior Will Hastings (238).
Senior Christian Acevedo (183) returns to the lineup after football injuries sidelined him last year, and James Palmer is a solid newcomer in the lighter weights.
Success helps define the goals, which Wallauer said are pretty clear.
“An undefeated regular season, OBC and regional champs and have four qualify for state,” he said. “The kids are pretty focused on what they have to do.”
The Longhorns won a dual meet with St. Cloud, 53-37, on Feb. 25 to open the season.
Osceola
Brad Lennox leads the Kowboys lifters, who are headlined by a who’s who of guys toting the load for the football team.
Andrew Burkhard (169), Randy Brown (199), Heath Rinkus (219), Reggie Hall (154), R.J. Butler (183) and Reggie Turner (heavyweight) are his top threats for the postseason.
“We’ve got a bunch of young kids working hard every day,” Lennox said.
St. Cloud
Cory Aun is now the coach, and he has brought an enthusiasm about bringing the conference title back to the Bulldogs weight room, populated by about 60 lifters (mostly underclassmen).
“For years it was a competition for second place to our team in the OBC meet and now we want the OBC title back where it belongs,” Aun said. “The seniors know our history and they refuse to leave without the OBC crown back at home.”
Senior Nate Green (154) will likely end his season at the state meet come April.
“He has set the standard of hard work in our weight room with year-round training. At the (season-opening) Spruce Creek meet, he tied a 15-year-old school bench press record (305 pounds) and broke our clean and jerk record (265),” Aun said.
“He still has a lot of room to improve and will be on the medal platform in April along with some of our other lifters, hopefully.”
Aun’s other top lifters include seniors Brian Spain (129) and Mikey Vazquez (139), junior Jeff Spelman (183) and seniors Kevin Greenawalt (183), Brian Rodriguez (199), Jhonathan Munoz (199) and Aaren Hoffman (238).
Poinciana
Joel Campbell, who helped Keith Stevenson to a podium finish at 119 pounds at last year’s Class A state meet, sees youth in the weight room.
“The team is full of underclassmen, but we do have a few guys to look out for,” he said.
His top lifters will be juniors Cameron Alcime and Alex Sanchez, offensive linemen off the Eagles football team, and quarterback Mike Cirino.
Liberty
Dave Benson is doing another season with the Chargers lifters, and his top three guys are in different stages of experience.
First there’s Caleb Lucien, a newcomer at 183 pounds. “He’s got great technique,” Benson said. “He could make some noise if he peaks at the right time.”
Then there’s the hard-working Moises Rivera at 129 pounds. “He’s looking to redeem himself after falling short last year at OBCs,” Benson said.
Finally, there’s senior Evan Durand at 199.
“He might be the strongest kid in the county, pound for pound,” Benson said. “He’s been a part of our program for four years now and he’s been getting stronger every day.”
Gateway
Panthers Coach Marlin Roberts has his entire football program in the weight room with him, then he pulls the top dozen lifters each week for his competition team, like in years past.
“And, our dozen is going to be a whole lot better than last year,” he said.
“Bryan Rosa (at 139 pounds) has a strong shot of making it to state, and I’m hoping he pulls a few guys along with him. And, some of the borderline guys, we’re hoping will step it up with the state meet in their hometown.”
Along with Rosa, Gateway’s top lifters are Nick Diaz at 238, and Jovanny Vega, who’s been the surprise of the weightroom at 183.
Celebration
Ben Aarestad leads the Storm in the weight room, and his best lifters are David Akins (119) and Kenny Bobola (139).
“Just like in football, I just don’t have much depth. We have to find some strength in the big weights,” Aarestad said.
“Most of my best kids are out for track.”