1 week Ago By Buddy Collings
Leesburg won its third consecutive FHSAA boys weightlifting state championship on Friday and it was a true team effort.The Yellow Jackets did not have an individual state champion in the Class 2A Olympic style competition, but had five lifters score with top six finishes to win the title at Polk State College in Winter Haven.Leesburg totaled 22 points to finish ahead of Choctawhatchee of Fort Walton Beach, which had two individual champions but only one other placer to total 20 points.
“It truly was a team effort,” said Leesburg coach Josh Boyer. “The guys had that mindset to make sure we secure our points and add to our team total. I couldn’t have been more proud about how they handled it.
We’ve obviously built something that is special.”The championship was the sixth in a span of three years, counting the girls program, which combines with the boys to train under Boyer’s guidance.Jeremy Lacey, a senior who repeated as a state champion in the traditional style, finished second in Olympic to lead the Yellow Jackets.
Two juniors, Gage Anderson and Ryan Thompson, joined seniors Savion Latimore and Jamhar Williams to also score and lift Leesburg to the top of the podium.The Olympic format, added to the FHSAA finals in 2021, counts lifts in the clean-and-jerk and snatch.The Yellow Jackets placed ninth in the traditional stage, which couples the bench press with the clean-and-jerk.
Boyer said most of his focus is on the techniques you see in the Olympic games.“Olympic is just so much more explosive and fun to watch, and the layers of time and attention to the technical side of this discipline requires much of our training time,” said Boyer, who was voted Florida Dairy Farmers boys weightlifting coach of the year in 2023 and girls coach of the year in 2024. “We train bench, but it isn’t our focus by a long shot.
”On top of the boys three year streak the girls team won Olympic championships in 2024 and this year, and also won the traditional title in 2024.Lacey is again the traditional state champ in the 119-pound weight class. He weighed in at 114.
8 pounds and bench pressed 255 to go with his 215 clean-and-jerk for a 470 total. That was 30 pounds higher than his winning 440 last year.“Freak of nature bench,” Boyer said of Lacey’s effort.
Lacey credited those around him for his performance.“What I realized this go-round is that having that good foundation with teammates, a wonderful coach, that is the most important thing,” Lacey said. “You can do anything when you’re standing on solid ground.
”In the Olympic phase Anderson was second in the 139 weight class with a 410 total.Thompson totaled 575 and was a close second in the 199 weight class behind Armoni Spurlock (580) of New Smyrna Beach.Latimore, lifting in the 219 weight class, took third with a 570 total.
Williams totaled 555 for fifth at 238.Leesburg tied for eighth in the traditional standings, with Lacey and Latimore the placers.Choctawhatchee won that team title.
Billy Faulk of Pine Ridge had third and fourth place showings in the 169 weight class.The 1A and 3A state meets will be contested Saturday at Polk State.Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandoSentinel.
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