St. Cloud dominates district meet, sends 19 to regionals

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  • Weightlifting
    Weightlifting
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In a near repeat performance of the Orange Belt Conference Tournament a week earlier, the St. Cloud girls weightlifting team dominated county competition in capturing the Class 2A District 11 Championship on Jan. 24.
St. Cloud won the event with 78 team points, easily out-distancing second place finishers Osceola and Liberty (38 team points each), Harmony was fourth at 34.
More impressively, the Lady Bulldogs advanced 19 of a possible 20 lifters to the Region 6 Competition, which it hosts today beginning at 5:30 p.m.
“We adjusted our line-up to maximize our possible number of qualifiers for the state finals. It changed the outcome a little bit and we didn’t win as many weight classes as we might have been able to,” St. Cloud Head Coach Cory Aun said. “We also were looking to place girls in the top six so we didn’t go chasing after some the other girls that we thought we could beat.”
Led by Kaylin White at 106-pounds, St. Cloud won three weight classes. White, a state qualifier from a year ago, posted a 145 bench press and 175-pound clean and jerk for a 320-pound total to win her weight class by more than 100 pounds over second-place finisher and St. Cloud teammate Lindsay Pinkerton (105-110-215).
Hannah Wagner was impressive at 183, posting a 190 bench and a 165 clean and jerk to win that weight class with a 355 total.  Zyanna Henry’s 200-180-380 total took the unlimited class.
“Those three lifters should be favored to win their classes at regional and gain automatic qualifier status,” Aun said.  “Our main goal at regionals is to get as many through to states as possible.  If everything goes our way our ultimate goal will be to get 12 lifters to the state championship.”
Osceola’s second place (tie) finish was paced by three individual district champions. Alliann Johnson won at 129-pound weight class (150-155-305), Haylee Lang at 139(140-150-290) and Isabella Pancake won at 154 (165-165-330).
Harmony and Liberty had two champions each.  Harmony saw Hannah Debrecht take the 101-pound weight class with a combined lift of 230-pound (120-110); while Reigan Pellegrino took the 119-pound weight class with a 105-140-245 total.
Liberty’s champions came at 160-pound with Emonie Scott (155-170-325) and Emma Stephens at the 199-pound class (140-175-315).
The top lifter in each weight class automatically qualifies for regionals, while the next five in each weight class also advances.