LAKELAND - Fleming Island High senior weightlifter Kathryn Ward has been competing with the memory of watching Clay High super lifter Emma Heck —a four-time state champion —and, at the FHSAA Class 2A state weightlifting championships held Thursday in Lakeland, Ward had to watch and wait for her moment.

Ridgeview High senior Jazmin Caraballo dominated her 183-weight class and got first year head coach Addyson Mauldin a state title athlete in her first crack at girls weightlifting.

Back to Ward, in the Olympics competition in her 139-pound weight class, the mano-a-mano battle with Arnold High's Kennedy Mcauliffe was a crowd pleaser for the RP Funding Center crowd as two of the best in the building were shoulder to shoulder for the state title. Both girls were state returners at 139 where Heck dominated.

"It was nerve wracking because the girl from Arnold had two chances to beat me," said Ward, now the 139 Olympics Class 2A champion and the runner-up in the Traditional scoring. "I had built a good cushion from the Olympic Snatch, but she had two lifts after I finished by Clean and Jerk."

In the dramatic showdown with Mcauliffe, Ward built a 15-pound cushion on the Olympic Snatch with a final lift of 155 to Mcauliffe's 140 as both were strong on all three required lifts.

"We knew going in that it would come down to the technique of both girls to execute," said Fleming Island coach Sean Coultis. "Kathryn has been rock solid in nailing all her lifts (nine per competition, three in each discipline) and that is to her advantage. The Arnold girl, I think, and I don't know why, made a tactical error in attempting a lift much higher than what she needed to win."

In the clean and jerk, Mcauliffe opened with a 175 to Ward's 170 to scrape away five pounds from Ward's edge. Ward returned to the platform and nailed her second lift at 180 with Mcauliffe unsuccessful at a surprising 205 second lift.

"A 190 would have tied the matchup lift wise, but Kathryn weighed in two pounds less than the Arnold girl and would have won the title on a tie," Coultis said. "Kathryn came right back and nailed her final lift at 185 to put more pressure on her."

A second attempt at 205 failed dramatically for Mcauliffe to give the title to Ward.

"I was holding my breath, but I think, mentally, the first miss drained her," Ward said. "It's hard to repeat a failed lift at any level. I think it was only fitting that the final chapter was as dramatic as it was."

Ward would return in the Traditional scoring, adding bench press to her Clean and Jerk, to take second behind River Ridge's Kishar Taylor who won with a 380-365 score above Ward.

"She came here to win a state title and she did," Coultis said. "She has been looking at the wall in our weight and wondering where her photo is going to be. We had some mistakes made along the way teamwise, but she had been a leader for four years and got points for our team title last year. I'm glad she joined the previous state champions from Fleming Island High."

Coultis, the defending Class 2A Olympics team champion, could only muster a 10-point team total that was tied three ways with Ridgeview and Middleburg with River Ridge winning the Olympics title with 22 points ahead of a three-way tie at 16 points with Lincoln, New Smyrna Beach and Lemon Bay.

"It's a tribute to the dedication of all the lifters in the state that the scores are this close," Coultis said. "You have two three-way ties [meaning] it was one or two bad lifts that took critical points."

For Caraballo and Maudlin, who both were entering the meet as the surprise of the 2025-26 season, but with a firepower filled lineup that got seconds to Fleming Island in the Clay County meet and the district and region meets, coming to Lakeland was Ridgeview's journey to make a statement.

"We came here to surprise people because these are tough girls on this team," Mauldin said. "Expectations are high, but this is a crazy tough meet to stay focused; the big arena, talent everywhere and a lot going on all around. There is a lot of pressure."

Caraballo, who came in with stalwart teammates in Emily Silva, Jada Hill and Ciera Neal among the line up, survived the pressure cooker to win decisively in her 183-pound weight class with wins of 10 pounds in Traditional, 390-380 and 360-345 in Traditional.

Caraballo had the best Olympic Snatch in the 183 group with an opener at 160 to take a 15-pound edge into the Clean and Jerk over two athletes: Carli Hall of New Smyrna Beach (130) and Chloe Pogoda of Braden River (145). Hall would fail on her next two attempts with Caraballo hitting 165, then missing at 170 and Pogoda hitting 150 and missing at 155. With her 15-pound cushion into Clean and Jerk, Caraballo was setting up for her own dramatic finish.

In Clean and Jerk, much like Ward of Fleming Island, Caraballo's lead was enough to force early challenger Carli Hall of New Smyrna Beach who opened her clean and jerk with a solid 200 lift to Caraballo's 185 with Pogoda at 180.

Hall's lift got her to within 15 with Caraballo up 30 on Hall after Olympic Snatch, but Caraballo answered with a 195 third lift for the title. Both failed in their second lift: 195 for Caraballo, 215 for Hall. Hall attempted 215 a second time on her third lift and failed with Caraballo successful at 195 for the title. Pogoda also finished with a 195 but had too much of a gap.

In the Bench Press segment of the Traditional scoring, it was Khloe Evans of Lemon Bay who nearly stole the show with bench presses of 200 and 210 to finish a surprising second to Caraballo who had enough cushion to let her 195-bench press thwart Evans' surge.

Middleburg, the defending Traditional Class 2A champions, came home with silver medals to state returners Trinity Woodley at 101 and Mckinzy Alexander at 110 with the lineup in both classes full of Clay County athletes including Ridgeview's Emily Silva at 101 and Jada Hill at 110 and Fleming Island's Kyla Marshall in 101.
In the final counts, Woodley and Alexander got their seconds in Traditional with Marshall sixth and Hill in fifth behind Alexander in Traditional.

In Olympics, Marshall was fourth with Woodley, who surprisingly failed on three lifts at 85 pounds in Olympic Snatch, out of Olympics scoring. At 110, Hill was fourth and Alexander fifth. A 110, Marshall missed her second and third lifts in bench press to finish sixth in Traditional.

Also in 101, Silva, the region champ in both disciplines a week ago, failed on her three clean and jerk lifts to eliminate her from both Olympics and Traditional.
For Fleming Island, also surprisingly, Haley Elkins at 129 missed her three Olympics snatch attempts to take her out of Olympics scoring. Elkins regrouped to finish seventh in Traditional.

"It's a tough meet and kids react to what's going on," Coultis said. "You can never anticipate the day."

Other top 10 finishers included, for Fleming Island: Alyssa Gordon at 119 (sixth in Traditional, eighth in Olympics), Marina Barger at 139 (ninth in Traditional), Loreanis Maysonet at 119 (10th in Olympics), Ava Hernandez at 169 (sixth in Olympics) and Zahaviah Sanders at 199 (third in Traditional, sixth in Olympics).
For Ridgeview, top 10 finishes came from Ella Beaufort at 154 (sixth in Traditional) and Ciera Neal in 154 (10th in Olympics, 10th in Traditional).
For Clay, in 169, Brooke Hamilton was ninth in Traditional and in Unlimited while Nevaeh Frazier was fifth in Olympics.

For Orange Park, in Unlimited, Lohi Richburg was fourth in Traditional.

Keystone Heights' Still gets second, Brown seventh

In Class 1A state weightlifting, Keystone Heights High senior Chloe Still finished second in her 139-weight class with senior Ashlyn Brown also finishing in top 10 with a seventh at 169. Kaylee Park finished 10th in her 129 weight class.
Also in Lakeland were Kylie Scott at 101, Tatum Hall at 154 and Ava Herman at Unlimited.

Wewahitchka won both team titles —42-22 over Suwannee in Olympics and 26-18 over Suwannee in Traditional. Also, in Class 1A, Bolles finished eighth coached by former Orange Park High and University of Florida cheerleader Tyler Jump.

Oakleaf sends four to Class 3A state meet

With Pace High dominating the team scores with 55 and 54 points, Oakleaf High had four lifters travel to the Class 3A state championship meet in Lakeland: Alanna Smith at 169, Vanessa Verger at 183, Serenity Cutts at 199 and Genesis Carter at Unlimited.