LAKELAND - In a competition that featured massively big numbers being thrust, three Clay County weightlifters came home with gold in one of the most competitive arenas; the FHSAA state weightlifting championships, over the weekend in Lakeland.

"I think this was one of the toughest days of lifting in Florida in a while," said Keystone Heights High coach Lantz Lowery, who finished second in Traditional to Suwannee High in an intense cat-and-mouse game of chicken, sort of, with a mistake or two the difference between Lowery's fourth straight state title and his eventual second place. "We came in with a plan and all I ask of my team is to get their lifts in and score points. We didn't do that as well today and Suwannee put on a good show."
Two defending individual champions; Keystone Heights' Trey Jeffries in Class 1A Olympics and Traditional and Fleming Island's Kevin Reyes in Class 2A Olympics, successfully defended their titles; both in Olympics in 2023, while Oakleaf put a new name in the champion trophy case in senior Elijah Shevchook, aka Porkchop, who battled to a Class 3A title in Traditional.
Note: Athletes competed in two separate scoring competitions with three separate lifts; Olympic snatch, Clean and Jerk and Bench Press, being combined to create an Olympic champion (Olympic snatch plus Clean and Jerk totals) and Traditional (Olympic Snatch and Bench Press totals).
"Trey was going to do what Trey does and he executed his game plan exactly as planned out," said Lowery, noting Jeffries won in Olympics in 2023 and finished third in Traditional. "To come back and win again, and add a second title, is a tough call, but he's a tough kid."
Shevchook, the middle brother of a threesome of outstanding athletes that have been at Oakleaf High; big brother Isaiah; a football, and weightlifting athlete from 2023, and little brother Noah, who, as a first-time invite as a freshman to the state weightlifting event, finished impressively in his weight class; 129 pounds, with two third place finishes.
In the Olympics lifts, Noah Shevchook was third by weight with a tie at 415 with Sam Lewis of Nease. Bryson Brown of Milton won with a 455 total. In Tradition, Lewis won by five pounds over Brown with Shevchook third.
Elijah Shevchook won in the 154 weight class with a 10-pound difference; 560, better by 10 pounds of St. Cloud's Jonathan Morales. Morales hit a 295 bench press on his second lift with Shevchook hitting 295 on his final lift, but Morales missed at 310. Morales missed at 265 in clean and jerk with Shevchook successful opening at 265; missing twice at 275. The difference was Morales hitting 255 on clean and jerk, but missing 265 on his final lift. Shevcook also finished fourth in Olympics.
Jeffries most impressive finish was in his bench press which came with a 385-pound final lift that forced his competitors to reach into unknown territory in the heat of the battle. Jeffries was patiently watching his chasers put down their best efforts with Jeffries' opening lift of 350 second best to a 355 by Taylor-Pierson's Francisco Perez, then his second lift of 350 was again second to Perez, who was good at 360.
From there, with Lowery crunching numbers to catch Suwannee to capture a fourth team title in four years, Jeffries blew up the corral with a 385 final lift against Perez's 370.
Lowery's answer to a question of catching Suwannee in Traditional with his big guys still in play, was simple, "Always."
Suwannee had run away with the Olympics team scores with 53 points beating South Sumter's 45 and Keystone Heights third at 21.
"I was crunching their numbers, not ours, to see where we could get an edge," said Lowery. "That coach is a great coach and he probably will never have a team as strong as this one, but I told my guys we need us to do us, get our lifts and hope for a mistake."
In the Tradition chase, Lowery got as close as 36-30 with Jeffries and Unlimited Tyler Duncan and 219s duo of Jayden Goodman and Bryson Wester awaiting final lifts. Lowery watched intently as the scoreboard jumped as Wester's 355 final bench press was second best to Suwannee's Will Wainwright, but Wainwright, who opened successfully at 385, failed twice at 405, then 420 to juggle the team numbers.
"We got enough to jump over South Sumter, but not enough to get to Suwannee," said Lowery. "I like the fight we gave, but now we are the hunter again for next year. We'll be back."
Keystone Heights was in position to wrest the title from Suwannee in Tradition with strong finishes from Tyson Baxter in 119, third; fifth and sixth in 129 from Colton Hollingsworth and Jed Tisdae; second and ninth in 139 from Wyatt Van Zant and Declan Shine; third in 169 from Ben Ulsch;
With no top 10s in the 183 and 199 weight divisions, the upper-weight boys for Lowery battled to steal the win.
"Think about Baxter, an exhibition lifter for us last year and now third in the state as a first-time varsity lifter," said Lowery. "
Duncan was as close as second place with 310 in clean and jerk and a 350 bench with Pensacola Catholic's Desjon Robertson missing his first shot at 450 in bench to open. Robertson would return and lift the 450 on his second attempt but missed at 465 on his final attempt. The 450 and a 420 opener from Artavious Jones of Blountstown moved Duncan to fifth with Robertson and Jones tying up top at 745 and Robertson getting the gold on body weight (weighed in less than Jones) with Duncan in a group separated by just 10 pounds from third to fifth.
Jeffries, who has been dominant all season for Keystone Heights coach Lantz Lowery, was as dominant at state with wins in both Olympic and Traditional by 25 pounds in Olympics and by 90 pounds in Traditional.
Suwannee's final tally was a 43-30 decision over Keystone Heights with South Sumter third at 28.
For Reyes, who stormed the castle last year to win the Olympics title after some early anxiety about thrusting 300-plus pounds over his head, struggled with two misses on his first two lifts at 230 about to leave him medal-less, but a successful third lift at 230 keeping him in the game.
"Kevin had hit 230, 240 and almost 250 in practice in Olympic Snatch on Monday before state so that was what we were trying to do; get a good lift on the board," said Fleming Island coach Sean Coultis. "In the clean and jerk, Kevin went with 325 for the win of a tie and hit the lift. One lift to win it all and he came through."
Reyes would answer in his battle with massive Burke Malmberg of Lecanto, a 276.30-pound mammoth, with a 325 clean and jerk besting Malmberg's 320 to get a tie in the Olympics scoring. Reyes, who weighed in at a relatively small 260.70 pounds, won the tie by body weight with both lifters tied at 555.
On the bench press, with three lifters hoisting above 400 pounds; 440, 420 and 410, Malmberg edged Middleburg's Gage Isbell for fourth also with a tie; 680-680, with Isbell weighing in at 292.40. Reyes was fifth at 675. Isbell also had his troubles with two misses in clean and jerk at 280 and two misses in bench press at 420 before hitting the 420 on his final lift.
Two lifters with shocking misses were Middleburg's Josh Senear, second last year in 2A, and Fleming Island's Tyler Beverly, Olympics state champion last year, with both missing all three clean and jerk lifts.
"Tyler injured a hamstring about a month ago and could not lift and that hurt him," said Coultis. "He could have got second but wanted to repeat as champion and went for it in the clean and jerk. He got the cleans on all three but missed on the jerk overhead. I loved that he wanted to win it all."
Also in the 2A Olympics top 10 finishers were Middleburg's Jammes Harris; ninth at 119; Middleburg's Trent Robinson, seventh at 139; Middleburg's Frew Kolton, seventh at 199; Fleming Island's Dehmir Jackson, seventh at 219; Ridgeview's Braylon Hawkins, ninth at 238 and Middleburg's Charles Little, sixth at Unlimited.
In 2A Traditional, the top 10 finishers were Middleburg's Jammes Harris, 10th at 119; Ridgeview's Jayden Campbell, sixth at 129; Middleburg's Trent Robinson, eighth at 139, and Fleming Island's Aidan Johannsen, seventh at 154.
In 3A, Oakleaf also had Ray Williams (119), Tony Gray (Unlimited) and Ethan Simons (238) competing.
In 2A, also competing were, at 129, Clay's Zerek Migliore; at 154, Middleburg's Daniel Raines and Ridgeview's Dondoza Roberts; at 154, Orange Park's David Lava and Bryce Sagar; at 183, Fleming Island's David Smith, and, at 219, Middleburg's Tucker Cody.
In 1A, Keystone Heights had Davin Adams at 154; Kyle Perkins at 183; Braydan Hall at 238; Jackson Herman at 238, and Braydan Wester at Unlimited.