KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Keystone Heights and Middleburg high schools battled and flipped team titles at the Clay County Boys Weightlifting Championships held at Keystone Heights High on March 12.

With Keystone Heights inching out for a 48-44 win over Middleburg in the Traditional scoring (Clean and Jerk totals plus bench press), it was the Broncos in the more technical Olympics scoring (Olympic Snatch plus Clean and Jerk) taking the Olympics scoring 61-55.

Oakleaf, with Noah Shevchook again dominating his 169-pound weight class with both Best Lifter nominations, was third in Olympics with 37 points and third in Traditional with 39 points.

The team scores stayed close with Fleming Island (35) and Clay (33) right behind the top three with Ridgeview and Orange Park at 13 and 8 in Traditional.
In Olympics, Fleming Island was fourth (30), Ridgeview fifth (20), Clay sixth (13) and Orange Park seventh (4).

In Olympics, individual titles went to Dylan Currington at 119 by a whopping 315 to 280 total over Benyamin Israel of Oakleaf; Harris Jammes of Middleburg at 129, 365-350 over Daniel Israel of Oakleaf; Colton Hollingsworth of Keystone Heights over Ashton Sharp of Middleburg 405-400; Brayden McCall of Keystone Heights at 154 with a another whopping 450-380 win over Daniel Raines of Middleburg; and, in the largest gap of the day, Shevchook at 169 with an astounding 585-390 win over Landon Dove of Fleming Island. Shevchook clean and jerked 325 to Dove's 215 for the win and well above his 305 to win the 154-state title in 2025.

In the upper weights, at 183, Fleming Island's Brady Diman won a 475-460 duel with Keystone Heights' Peter Bostic; Clay's Skyler Phoenix-Dean at 199 got five pounds on Keystone Heights' Kyle Perkins 505-500 for the win; Middleburg's Darius Swilley at 219 also squeezed out a 470-465 win over Fleming Island's Dom Dyer; at 238, Ethan Simons of Oakleaf crushed Logan Madden-Moore with an also astounding 625-485 total; and, at Unlimited, Middleburg's Trent Pavlus smashed a 520-460 win over Andrew Snider of Keystone Heights.
Simons clean and jerked 355 for his win.

In Traditional individual titles went to Benyamin flipping Currington 390-360 at 119; defending 199 state champion Elijah Mize of Keystone Heights eking past Middleburg's Daniel 445-440 at 129; Hollingsworth getting 10 pounds, 465-455, on Garvens Bonhomme of Orange Park at 139; Clay's Ajax Sgro at 154 bumping McCall 500-495, and Shevchook hitting the 700 mark over Caiden Thigpen of Middleburg, 700-505, at 169.

Mize equaled his 255-bench press set at the Keystone Invitational two weeks ago. Mize, at 119, benched 225, but missed at 245, to win his state title last year with a tie at 400 total broken by body weight.

Shevchook bench pressed 375 pounds to Thigpen's 290 for the overwhelming win. Shevchook benched 320 for the 154-state title last year and totaled just 625.
In the upper weights, Middleburg got points from Sam Craven at 183 with a 600-525 win over Bostic; Orange Park's James Waters took 199 with a 585-585 tie with Phoenix-Dean broken by Waters' less body weight; at 219, Dyer got his title over Brad Darnold of Middleburg 575-54; and 238, Simons again went big with a 690-575 win over Madden-Moore, and, at Unlimited, Clay's Touni Saoud got the better of Pavlus, 640-610.