BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Union County High School’s Riley Gibson won her weight class at the Jan. 31 Region 3-1A girls weightlifting meet and will be one of three Tigers who’ll compete at state.
Gibson had a first-place total of 245 pounds (115-pound clean and jerk, 130-pound bench press) in the 119-pound class, which tied her with West Nassau’s Peyton Lynch. Gibson was awarded the championship due to the weigh-in tiebreaker.
After the clean-and-jerk session, Gibson was in sixth place after having unsuccessful lifts on her second and third attempts, but her best bench-press total was the best in her class by 10 pounds. Lynch was unsuccessful on her third attempt of 125, which would’ve given her the championship.
By winning her class, Gibson automatically qualified for the state meet, which will be held Friday, Feb. 13, at the R.P. Funding Center in Lakeland at 10 a.m.
At-large qualifiers were determined by comparing region-level totals, with the result being that Union will have two additional state participants in Alexia Cyr and Briena Haight. Both were second-place finishers, with Cyr finishing with a 280 total (140, 140) in the 139 class and Haight finishing with a 370 total (170, 200) in the 199 class.
Two Union lifters earned fifth-place finishes: Emma Handley with a 230 total (115, 115) in the 129 class and Allaya Blocker with a 300 total (145, 155) in the unlimited class.
Courtney Manning had a ninth-place total of 200 (105, 95) in the 154 class, while Brooke Hunt was ninth in the 199 class with a 215 total (110, 105).
Kieren Seay had a 12th-place total of 155 (80, 75) in the 183 class.
