LAKELAND - Two individual titles and two team titles in an unprecedented day at the FHSAA state weightlifting championships put Clay County girls weightlifting into a new stratosphere as every county school was represented at the annual lift-fest at Lakeland's RP Funding Center on Friday.Top attraction for the day's events was a fourth straight state title for Clay High's Emma Heck who also set a state record for the Olympic Snatch lift

"It's kind of a bittersweet day for me," said Heck, who hoisted 185 in the Snatch to win that discipline in the opening round of three of competition for the day. "I'm going to continue lifting after graduation and see where that goes, but high school lifting with this team has been pretty special. International lifting is very business-like; this is more emotional with the teammates."
Heck, named the Olympics top lifter of the meet, was perfect on all but one lift in her Lakeland visit with a miss at 235 on the clean and jerk on her third lift there the only miss.
"It's a long day and I still had to do the bench press, so we gave the 235 a shot," said Heck.
Heck won decisively with a 410 total winning by 80 pounds in Olympics and a 405 total winning Traditional by 65 pounds.

In Traditional, Middleburg was the Class 2A team champion while in the Olympics scoring, Fleming Island tied with 16 points with Leesburg to be named co-champions.

For Coultis, who always makes reference to the Heck and Rodney Keller era of Clay High girls weightlifting with back to back titles and four in a row for Heck, the blueprint and the getting beat up by Clay for three years is what steeled his program.
"You got to think about the precedent set when Rodney Keller was at Clay and won back to back titles for the Blue Devil girls then Keystone Heights' Lantz Lowery did it for the boys," said Fleming Island coach Sean Coultis, as his Fleming Island girls team got an individual title to senior Bradi Johnson en route to a tie for the Olympics team title with Leesburg (16 points each) as well as a third place finish in the Traditional scoring behind Leesburg. "I think about where this program started four years ago and we didn't even win a meet. Now look at us. It's all about the girls dedication and hard work."
For Middleburg, where coach Rhiannon Weiskopf was busy throughout the hectic day with husband Chase and assistant coach Benjamin Traywick crunching numbers on their phones, the Lady Broncos, in the Traditional scoring, were touted to be in the top three contenders for the title.
"I don't want to say anything at this point," said a nervous, but optimistic Weiskopf as the final lifts of the day were still being calculated at about 5 p.m. after the 1 p.m. start. "This is probably one of the hardest meets to win just because of the many variables that have to line up to get to a title run."
For Weiskopf, in the end, her skeptimism was overrun by a stellar performance from her senior leader, 154 pounder Caylee Johnson, second at 154 by just 15 pounds, who had been a dominant figure throughout the season and, with her wingman of sorts, junior Madison Underwood, sixth at 154, who was always just around the corner in the same 154 weight class, giving the Broncos a solid 1-2 punch for team points.

With Leesburg and Fleming Island both getting just one individual title, the numbers to the team title were going to be from the rest of Johnson's teammate to grab a spot or two away from other teams to add the points.
One factor that Coultis was keeping a keen eye on was Ridgeview coach Trent Davis' team led by the Hill sisters; Jada and Deja at 101 and 110, and senior Ania Haber, who was to battle to stay close to Fleming Island's Johnson at 119.
"We came in with numbers to get close," said Davis, who was fifth in Olympics, four points off Fleming Island's 16 for the title. "But, we had to have our best lifts plus some tonight to chase down whoever was in the top two."

Also in Class 2A, Orange Park Unlimited lifter Alohalani Richburg joined first year head coach Gabby Willits as both athletes traveled to their first state meet for the Raiders. Willits, a world-ranked World's Strongest Woman competitor, was a state meet lifter out of Oakleaf High School.
In Class 1A, Keystone Heights senior Chloe Still finished eighth at 139 in Traditional.
In Class 3A, Oakleaf had Jean De'Mote finishing sixth at 169 in Olympics and Traditional.

See more coverage in the Clay Today sports pages on February 22.