LAKELAND - Oakleaf High junior Noah Shevchook had his big brother Elijah hovering over his final bench press as he finished off his trek to equal big brother with a state weightlifting title Saturday in Lakeland.

Shevchook won in the Traditional scoring of weightlifting; a combination of Clean and Jerk and Bench Press lifts while finishing third in the Olympics scoring; Olympic Snatch and Clean and Jerk.
Elijah Shevchook, a graduated state champion from last year's state meet, has been in brother Noah's corner as well as the Oakleaf High team all season and the presence of the champion made its impact Saturday.
"I think I bring a little bit of the what to expect when you get here vibe," said Elijah Shevchook. "During the season, I pushed all the lifters to focus on the very little pieces that go into a successful lift. Today was the validation of that."
For Oakleaf, Christian Rodriguez at 169 was just 15 feet away from the Shevchook battle royale and was going blow for blow with his best guys to take a third place bronze medal in Traditional also with a battle above the 300 pound mark. Rodriguez, injured in his lower back earlier this season, was not competing in the Olympic Snatch and did not factor in the Olympics scoring for the Knights.
Amazingly, with just five lifters taking the trip to Lakeland, coaches Lane Samples and Jerard Lanoir were able to throw enough weight around to finish fourth overall in Traditional and sixth overall in Olympics.
"We brought some firepower with us and we knew we were going to put big numbers up if we did our jobs," said Samples. "We had tremendous finishes from Ray, Lucius and Ethan (Williams, third in Olympics and Traditional at 129; Manley eighth at 199 Olympics; Simon, fourth at 238 in Olympics) with Daniel (Israel, in 129, our only non scoring lifter). That's pretty good for a small team going up against big teams like Pace, Spruce Creek and Navarre who have dominated here forever."
Pace, with two champions and 11 top 10 placers, won the Olympics team title with 30 points with Spruce Creek second at 17, Navarre third at 16, Forest Hill fourth at 14, Jupiter fifth at 12 and Oakleaf sixth at 11 in a tie with Manatee.
In Traditional, Pace, with three champions and nine top 10 finishers, won with 37 points ahead of Venice with 20 with Navarre third at 17 and Oakleaf fourth at 15. St. Cloud was fifth with nine.
Ironically, the region 1-3A finishers were the same lineup in Traditional; Pace, Spruce Creek, Navarre and Oakleaf with, in Olympics it was Pace, Spruce Creek, Navarre, Crestview and Oakleaf in fifth.
"That's a pretty tough regional lineup that we knew we were going to see again at state," said Samples. "All I can tell the guys is hit your lifts and hope they miss one of theirs."
For Noah Shevchook, the chase to the title started with his third place finish last year and ended with a Mano-a-Mano battle with a trio of astounding competitors in the 154 pound division that played above the 300 pound barrier all day.
"I knew what I could do in the bench press and that if I did my lifts, I could win the title," said Shevchook. "I wanted the Olympics title, but the other guys were a little tougher in the Clean and Jerk."
Shevchook's main nemesis was Milton High's Bryson Brown, who took the region Olympics title from Shevchook a week ago by just five pounds with Shevchook returning the favor in Traditional with Pace's Ryan Harrigill putting Bryson at third.
The third prong of the three-way challenge came from Angel Quintero of Forest Hill High, but Quintero, who was second in the best Olympic lifter on the day and the eventual 154 Olympics champion, was not competing in the bench press session and gave Shevchook, third rated in Traditional best lifter, the driver's seat. Brown was second in Olympics.
"I was going to come down to Bryson (Brown) and me again in Traditional," said Shevchook. "He's a great Snatch and Clean and Jerk guy, but I knew what I could do in bench press."
In the Olympics Snatch, Harrigill was first to fall with misses at 205 pounds to take him out of the equation with Brown hitting his final lift at 255 and Quintero recovering from a miss at 240 to hit 240 and 255 to equal Brown. Also hovering the picture was a 240 lift from Winter Park's Nichola Deshaies. Note: Quintero weighed less than Brown in body weight which is the tie-breaking factor in weightlifting.
In Clean and Jerk, Shevchook, alarmingly, missed his opener at 290 to cause heart palpations in the RP Funding Arena.
"It was just a glitch and the officials are very tight at state," said Shevchook. "I didn't panic and made it (290) on my second lift."
Brown and Quintero smelled blood in the water and put up 300 pound openers, then 310 for Brown and 315 for Quintero, but Shevchook had one lift and hit 305 to secure third place.
In Traditional, with the Clean and Jerk scores putting Shevchook at a disadvantage five pounds down on Brown and a tenuous 15 up on Harrigill, Shevchook threw his trump card in with a 310 opener. Brown opened at just 255, but Harrigill was back in the mix with a 290 opener.
"It was meant to put them on their heels," said Shevchook. "Bryson only hit a 260 at regions and I knew I was going over 300."
With Harrigill forced to to chase Shevchook, his second lift, 300 and third lift, a Hail Mary at 310, both failed with Brown good at 265, but off at 270.
Shevchook, charged by watching the action around him and watching (or better, hearing) his teammate also getting big crowd reactions, jumped to a 320 second lift, then took a final shot at a state record 335 after securing his gold medal.
"I've done it in practice and had a 325 last week, but it wasn't needed," said Shevchook.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez, the Traditional region champ by a body weight tiebreaker to Crestview's Eli Anglin at 595 total, Rodriguez held a five pound advantage after the clean and jerk at 290-285, then both clearing their first bench press at 305 to set up a final two lifts of intensity. The wild card guy in the 169 was Venice High's Ruh Tanner, also not competin in Olympic Snatch, who quietly may have taken advantage of the Rodriguez Anglin battle to sit in contention for the top prize when the dust settled.
"We tied at regions and I knew he was not going to let up," said Rodriguez. "That second lift was sloppy and then he hit his (at 315). I had to go up to beat him and missed at 315."
With Tanner hitting at 295, but missing at 300, the trio was within pounds of each other heading to the bench press.
Anglin and Rodriguez both opened good at 305, but Ranner opened at 310 to add five points to his lead on the threesome.
Tanner continued to improve with lifts of 315 and 320 to take the title with Anglin good at 315, but a miss at 325 to take the outright silver medal. Rodriguez was off on two attempts at 315.
"I'll be back," said Rodriguez. "I'm not making excuses, but I missed a month for my injury from the Snatch, but wanted to go as far as I could today with my teammates."
At the opposite end of the arena, at 119, Williams was in a weight class with a three time state champion; Michael Ziss of St. Cloud who again dominated with Williams third with a 415 total in Traditional and a 360 total in Olympics to a 430 and 435 totals for Jagari Gardner of Hagerty.
In the upper weight divisions, Oakleaf's Ethan Simons, at 238, finished with a 565 total in Olympics for his fourth behind a top score of 580 with a 705 winning in Traditional.
At 199, Lucius Manley, in Olympics, had best lifts of 230 and 265 to finish eighth.

Class 3A finishers

119: Ray Williams OHS (360 total Olympics, 415 total Traditional)
129: Daniel Israel OHS (400 total Traditional)
154: Noah Shevchook OHS (535 total Olympics, 625 total Traditional)
169: Christian Rodriguez OHS (595 total Traditional)
199: Lucius Manley OHS (495 total Olympics)
238: Ethan Simons OHS (565 total Olympics, 610 total Traditional)