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FLEMING ISLAND - Clay High junior, now senior girls weightlifter Emma Heck did what she was expected to in her expertise while Fleming Island High senior track runner Roman Mollicone expertly put his best races on the track at precisely the right moments and against the top challengers in the state as both athletes earned the Clay Today Top Sports Performances for 2024.

Heck, the dominant figure in girls' weightlifting for all of her first three years of competing simply did what she does as she blasted a record-setting season with her third batch of double gold medals in her disciplines; Olympics and Traditional lifting.
For Heck, with more district, region, and county titles in her pocket, ventures into a new weight class in 2024-25, but, thus far, does not seem deterred by the new competition with a big win last week at the Power of Christmas Invite at Suwannee High School also in dominant fashion.
For her continued execution of perfection in her sport and a possible fourth straight state title well within reach, Heck is chosen as the Clay Today Sports Performance of the 2023-24 school year and for 2024.
At the 2024 Power of Christmas Invitational at Suwannee, a slugfest of the best weightlifters in the state, Heck dominated in her new weight class to put on notice that she intends to kill the fourth title in the spring.
For Mollicone, who toyed around with a string of personal best times in his specialty, the 800 meters, with a string of school records near the season's end, culminated a seemingly quiet rise in the state ranks before exploding on to the stage with a scintillating anchor leg of the Fleming Island 4 x 800 gold medal team, then answering that with a solo 800-meter title at the same track meet.
Most track aficionados were not surprised by Mollicone's astonishing high school career finish, as his lust for wickedly competitive races outweighed his seemingly toyish attitude at races he was expected to dominate.
"Roman had his day," said Fleming Island coach Chris Otero. "He has been taking down the school record all season, first the one held by Cameron Davis, then his own as he has gone faster each week from his 1:56 at the start of the season, a few 1:54s, a 1:53 last week at regions, a 1:51 in the 4 x 800, and now this one. Heck of a way to finish a career."
At the 2024 track state championships, Mollicone basically threw lightning bolts at those—not his boss coach David Allen, though—who were expecting, at the least, a medal finish.
In the 4 x 800, with the rest of his quartet; John Keester, Graham Myers and Michael DeRousse executing the game plan of giving Mollicone a healthy lead as anchor to finish off challenges from the likes of Belen Jesuit Leon and Choctawhatchee, Mollicone blitzed his leg to leave no doubt.
"No one is running down the Italian Stallion," said Fleming Island distance coach Dave Allen.
For his exciting high school finish Mollicone is chosen as the Clay Today Male sports performance of the 2023-24 school year and 2024.
In the fall of 2024, Middleburg High'football got a third consecutive region playoff spot under coach Ryan Wolfe and Fleming Island got a region berth under coach Derek Chipoletti, but the best player for the 2024 season had to go to Oakleaf quarterback Jack McKissock who negotiated a monster tough schedule and got the Knights to a region final finish with one of the gutsiest final plays of his season with an 80 yard touchdown pass to wide out Michael Connor in the Knights' 25-19 loss to Buchholz. McKissock, a junior, put up nearly 400 yards; his best of the season and third 300-plus game, against Buchholz with nearly 30 yards a toss, but the Knights could not get the W for second-year coach Chris Foy.
Other exception performances for 2024 included a state quarterfinals finish by the Clay High flag football team led by senior Shelby McClain linebacker and quarterback Teaghan Moses with a tough 13-6 loss to Choctawhatchee in the Final Four to end their season at 13-2; a first-time state title in Class 1A baseball in stupendously dramatic fashion thanks to George Gilson by the St. Johns Country Day School baseball team that featured back-to-back walk-off wins via home run and a stolen home plate in the state final; the Fleming Island boys golf team, led by sophomore Tyler Mawhinney's gold medal finish in Class 3A in 2023, won the Class 3A team title after a near-disastrous region finish that ultimately got an at-large bid to the state championship second place finish to which Fleming Island, in the fall of 2024, took the Class 2A title.
With an unbeaten regular season slate, a second consecutive state wrestling title went to Middleburg junior now senior Cheyenne Cruce who maintained an incredibly difficult double of 39-0 season records both years and looks to add a third in a new weight class in 2025; Fleming Island junior now senior weightlifter Kevin Reyes hoisting enough to oust a much bigger challenger to win on a tie through body weight to take his second Olympics weightlifting title with a possible unprecedented third title in the mix for 2025.
Keystone Heights senior weightlifter Trey Jeffries took his second weightlifting title; this time a double in both disciplines, for the always-strong Indians boys squad that lost head coach Lantz Lowery and, in the third dude to bring home the gold, Oakleaf High weightlifter Elijah Shevchook earning his first weightlifting title.
Track saw Fleming Island high jumper Gabrielle Flores win her gold medal with Oakleaf triple jumper Takoda Brown also having his best day at the state championships to bring yet another track jump medal back to the Oakleaf trophy case.
At the 2024 swimming state championships, Orange Park sprint freestylist Sebastian Lopez put up Caeleb Dressel-like numbers; fourth in 50 in 21.13 seconds, seventh in 100 free in 46.38 seconds, against the fastest sprinters in the state, probably in the country, to close his season with lightning bolts. Also, Fleming Island diver Ava Brinkman got her second state title after a second-place finish in 2023.
In the summer of 2024, Dressel, 28, made a gallant return to his third Olympics, this time in Paris, and finished with two relay gold medals. Dressel has made comments about an attempted 2028 final splash and dash at the Los Angeles Olympics.