DELAND – Keystone Heights 129 pound weightlifter Taylor Beall lurked and waited for his shot to steal the Class 1A 129 pound title on one lift. With Keystone Heights sitting in third behind overall champion Madison County and runnerup Baker County, with team totals of 22 and 21, the Indians, at 14, had one final shot for the seven first place points to tie Baker County.

“You might call it a “Hail Mary” because we were going to go for one shot at the title on our last lift,” said Beall, who was third in 2016. “Go big or go home.”

Beall, who had a subpar bench press of just 210, knew that the clean and jerk was going to be his move.

“I didn’t do as well in the bench because at 210 I felt terrible and then I missed at 220 and 230,” said Beall. “I was confident still because my clean and jerk best, 250, was going to be the difference. I almost got the 215.”

With numbers one and two; D’Marques Johnson of Cedar Creek and Alex Smith of Anclote, both probably knowing that Beall’s clean and jerk, a 250 best, was going to be the difference maker, Beall waited as Johnson finished with a 235 clean and jerk and Smith finished with a 220 to total out at 465 and 460, respectively.

With his 210 bench, Beall, who had cleaned 225 easily on his first attempt then missed his second attempt check-in, calculated a best-ever 255 to be the winning attempt for his shot at gold. Before his final lift, third place was locked in.

“My 250 would have tied for first, but I wasn’t going to be happy with that, “ said Beall. “I knew I had the best clean and jerk on the list.”

For coaches Lantz Lowery and Chuck Dickinson, the choice to go five pounds up was almost a no-brainer.

“He’s a tough, courageous kid,” said Dickinson. “He was going to go for it. He had third locked up and didn’t want the tie for first.”

As Beall approached the bar for that final lift, the Deland gym quieted.

“When I got it up to chest, I actually felt like it was going to happen,” said Beall. “When I started my press up, the bar rolled a bit forward and I kind of lost control of it as it went forward and up. I wanted badly to stand on top of the podium but it wasn’t going to happen.”

Beall and teammates Brandon Staley at 139 and Justin Raysin at 183 all medaled for Lowery, who made his return to the Indians’ weight room after a brief stint at rival Interlachen High School.

“Taylor messed up on the bench, but it’s nice to have a bad day and still get third,” said Lowery. “Staley had a chance at the title in his division. Justin had a nice finish at third. This is a hard day to have to have your best day, but getting third overall against the likes of Madison County and Baker County is not bad.”

Lowery, who was part of Keystone Heights’ 2014 state title (shared with Baker County), said the program itself is feeding off the success of that 2014 team.

“There are more kids coming out that understand that the bar is high in our room,” said Lowery. “We have a bunch of young guys for next year so we’ll be around a while.”

Spivey, at 139, had to contend with a 25 pound deficit after his 245 pound bench was short of eventual champion Michael Hensley of Wewahitchka’s 270. In the clean and jerk, Spivey recouped just five of the 25 pounds; 225, to fall short by 20 pounds.

“He went for it too on the clean and jerk,” said Lowery. “We work on the technique there and we have better lifts there.”

Raysin, a linebacker for Dickinson’s football Indians, had his first foray into the state meet chaos and came in with eyes opened by the intensity.

Again, Raysin, as his Indians’ teammate did before him, bested the field in the clean and jerk with a class best 290 pounds, but fell short by 55 pounds for his third place.

“We work a lot on the clean and jerk and probably have the best technique there,” said Raysin. “Coach Lowery pushes us there. We figure we are not going to win on bench, so the clean and jerk is more technique then power and we can get back there.”

Keystone Heights’ finished with 14 team points to join Madison County and Baker County as the only three teams with double digit team points in the 70 team field.

Also in Class 1A, Clay High senior Marcus Jones finished fifth in 219 with a 635 total with a 690 total from Madison County’s Diante Hartsfield. Clay also had Gabe Nealy at 139 who finished eighth with a 425 total.

“It was crazy, I improved from last year, but it was a battle,” said Jones, a football linebacker and fullback at Clay High and heading to University of Central Florida for competitive cheerleading. “I just love watching guys compete and get after it. My bench was a big improvement.”

For Clay High coach Rodney Keller, who produced two state titles for the girls weightlifting team, said the boys had a tough road ahead with the immense state wide talent.

“The classes were crazy tight with five pounds here or there the difference,” said Keller. “Our plan was to get five out of six lifts and then figure where we were and go for it. Gabe lifted well in his first state meet.”

Clay also had Shane Ballesta, at 129, finishing eighth at 395.

Keystone Heights finished with David Tisdale at 139, 17th at 395; Zachary Blalock at 169, seventh at 545; Hunter Collins at 183, 16th at 510; Nolin Robertson at 219, eighth at 600, and Matt White at Unlimited, sixth at 675.

For Orange Park, Alex Bailes and Shawn Bizzell both earned medals with Bailes, at 238, taking sixth at 610 and Bizzell, at Unlimited, taking fourth at 700 with winner Joel Makatura of Interlachen at 740.

“My bench was not what I wanted; 370, and I had the second best clean of the class at 330,” said Bizzell. “The Baker County guy lifted a 350 to tie me at 700, but he weighed in less and got the third.”

For Bailes, who earned a district and region title en route to his state meet ticket, said his Olympic weightlifting training over the summer improved his clean and jerk.

“I trained and competed in some Olympic weightlifting camps and that got my technique there a lot better,” said Bailes.

Ridgeview High had two lifters; freshman Rolando Grey and senior Jonathan McDow, with McDow taking seventh behind Bailes at 239 with a 600 total. Grey, in 129, finished 14th at 365.

“I was pretty nervous out there, but now it’s time to get ready for football,” said Grey.

In Class 2A, staged on Friday, Fleming Island’s Tyler Nguyen was top finisher with his second place in the 154 pound division with a 605 total behind winner Justin Scott of Choctwhatchee’s 670. Middleburg’s Tyler Braswell finished fourth at 119 with a 400 total behind winner Andy Montalvo, of Columbia, who totaled 465. Montalvo was also the region champion.

Also for Fleming Island, 10th in team points, were Franco Bello, sixth at 169 at 575, and Jason Manalo, at 199, finished fifth at 620 behind winner Kamario Bell of Columbia’s 720 total.

Also for Middleburg was Brent Caviness at 238, 18th at 595.

For Oakleaf, Jakobie Baker took fourth at 183 with a 640 total to winner Josh Piasecki of St. Cloud’s 710 winning total. Knights’ teammates Eric Rand took 16th at 610 in 238 with Anthony Laskowski getting seventh at 183 with a 615 total.