PONTE VEDRA - Oakleaf High had a strong district boys weightlifting day and moved into regions with the confidence of at least a handful of top finishes and it was Ray Williams, Noah Shevchook and Christian Rodriguez emerging on top with titles with Shevchook named the meet's top lifter in Traditional. The meet was held Wednesday, April 2 at Nease High School.
Keystone Heights will host their regions on Friday, April 4 while the Class 2A regions will be at Suwannee High on Saturday, April 5 with Middleburg, Fleming Island, Clay, Ridgeview and Orange Park all sending athletes.
For the Knights, in the region 1-3A team scores, finished fifth in Olympics to overall team champion Pace High with Pace scoring 65 points and Oakleaf finishing with 14. Spruce Creek was the only school staying close to Pace with 50 points for second and Navarre a distant third with 27.
Pace also dominated in Traditional with a 61 point total, well ahead of Spruce Creek's runnerup with 25 with Navarre third at 23. Oakelaf was fourth right behind Navarre with 22 team points.
At 119, Williams, with a 415 total in Traditional, won his division by 25 pounds over Jules Hunter of Gulf Breeze while, at 154, Shevchook rolled with a 635 total to beat Ryan Harrigill's 570 as second. Ironically, in Shevchook's 154 weight class was Bryson Brown of Milton, who finished as the Olympics champion over Shevchook, but third in Traditional. Brown was also named top lifter in Olympics to set up a clash at the Class 3A championships in Lakeland.
Williams won the Olympics title by just five pounds over Hunter, 340-335, while Brown beat Shevchook also by five pounds, 545-540.
Shevchook, with a 230 Snatch, missed at a 240 Snatch lift with Brown successful with Shevchook only getting five pounds back with a 310-305 gap in Clean and Jerk Shevchook was top bench press with a 325 the top lift with Brown only lifting 260 with two lifters successful at 290 giving Shevchook that title.
At 169, Rodriguez won on body weight; 166.0 vs. 168.80, with a tie at a 595 total in Traditional with Eli Anglin of Crestview. Rodriguez did not compete in the Olympics discipline.
Region champions automatically qualify to state with the next 16 lifters advancing. Oakleaf, in Traditional, had Daniel Israel at eighth at 129 and Ethan Simons, sixth at 238, awaiting statewide region results.
At Traditional, Brandon Lee, ninth at 154; Lucius Manley, seventh at 199; and Simons, fifth at 238 all awaiting final region results.