BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Keystone Heights High School captured the championship trophies in both the Olympic (snatch and clean and jerk) and traditional (bench press and clean and jerk) events at the District 6-1A meet, which was held Jan. 28 at St. Johns Country Day School.
“The ultimate goal, as I told them this week, was I wanted both trophies,” Keystone Coach Todd Gillenwaters said. “We got both trophies.
“I’m ecstatic. I’m elated. We’re on the rise (as a program).”
Keystone had three individual champions in the Olympic event and one in the traditional event. They qualified automatically for the Region 2 finals, which will be held the Saturday, Feb. 4, at 9 a.m. at West Nassau High School.
At-large qualifiers in each weight class will be announced at a later date.
The Indians had a team score of 58 in the Olympic event, placing 15 points ahead of runner-up Baldwin.
Kaylee Wright, who won the 169 class with a 280 total (120 snatch, 160 clean and jerk), was the second-best pound-for-pound lifter in the Olympic event behind St. Johns Country Day’s Addison Frisbee, who competes in the 129 class.
The Indians had two other Olympic champions in Kenly Chitty, who won the 154 class with a 220 total (90, 130), and Paige Harrington, who won the 183 class with a 210 total (85, 125). Chitty was the fourth-best pound-for-pound lifter, while Harrington was eighth best.
Four lifters were runners-up in their classes: Heidi Knapp with a lift of 160 (65, 95) in the 119 class, Lillian Mitchell with a lift of 175 (75, 100) in the 183 class, Harmony Geiger with a lift of 185 (65, 120) in the 199 class and Dakota Herring with a lift of 190 (75, 115) in the unlimited class.
Knapp and Herring were each 5 pounds away from winning their classes.
Gillenwaters said Geiger came through in a big way. He said she knew she could earn points in the Olympic event because of the competitors in her class, but it had been a while since she had done the snatch. Plus, Geiger had scratched out at her three previous meets because she couldn’t get a clean-and-jerk attempt that counted.
Geiger missed her first snatch attempt of 65, but got the total successfully on her second attempt before unsuccessfully trying 70 on her third attempt.
“Then she goes and nails all three of her clean and jerks, which she hasn’t even done since before Christmas,” Gillenwaters said. Geiger had clean-and-jerk totals of 110 and 115 on her first two attempts before getting the 120 on her third attempt.
Placing third were Abbigail Anthony-Rozier with a lift of 145 (60, 85) in the 119 class, Ashlyn Brown with a lift of 200 (95, 105) in the 154 class and Morgan Wilson with a lift of 190 (80, 110) in the 169 class.
Alexys Schleeter and Trista Harrison also earned points. Schleeter was fourth in the 139 class with a lift of 160 (60,100), while Harrison was fifth in the 129 class with a lift of 165 (75, 90).
Keystone had a score of 43 in the traditional event, which put the Indians 11 points ahead of runner-up Bradford.
Ariel King automatically qualified for the Region 2 meet by winning the 129 class with a 250 total (130 bench press, 120 clean and jerk). She was the fourth-best pound-for-pound lifter.
Four lifters placed second: Contessa Herring with a 125 total (65, 60) in the 110 class, Chloe Still with a 250 total (120, 130) in the 139 class, Wright with a 340 total (180, 160) and Harrington with a 230 total (105, 125).
Wright and Harrington actually tied with the top lifters in their classes, but were awarded second due to the weigh-in tiebreaker.
Chitty and Mitchell placed third in their classes with totals of 240 (110, 130) and 225 (125, 100), respectively.
Geiger was fourth with a 275 total (155, 120), while Brown was fifth with a 205 total (100, 105).
Three lifters placed sixth: Regan Lee with a 195 total (105, 90) in the 139 class, Wilson with a 215 total (105, 110) and Ava Herman with a 225 total (120, 105) in the unlimited class.
Gillenwaters said he got started with coaching the team two years ago alongside Mary Karsher-Smith. They wanted to develop a winning culture, following in the footsteps of the boys team, which has won two straight state championships in the traditional event and was also the snatch state champion last year (the first year the event was part of the state series).
Finding the motivation isn’t difficult when you’re around your inspiration.
“It’s easy when it’s on campus. You see (what the boys are doing), and you want that,” Gillenwaters said. “When we started this year, we asked, ‘Who wants to be on the podium at state?’ Of course, everybody raised their hands. ‘OK. It’s time to work.’”
Work they did. The hope is that accomplishments like capturing two district trophies will help encourage more girls to compete in weightlifting.
This year’s team already has a good number of student-athletes, which has paid dividends.
“That’s why we won today — strength in numbers,” Gillenwaters said. “We had 20 lifters. I think the next closest (team) was 13 lifters. It’s hard to beat that.”
