Three Flagler County weightlifters, including Myles Henderson-Baker and Richard Pham of Flagler Palm Coast and Seaton Waldhauer of Matanzas, captured district weight class titles Friday at FPC in the District 7-2A competition.
Close to a dozen other lifters from the two schools also placed in the top six, making them eligible to compete at the Region 4-2A meet March 21 at Spruce Creek. FPC has eight lifters advancing to regionals and Matanzas advanced three more from the district.
Henderson-Baker won the 119-pound class with a combined 445 pounds, including almost twice his body weight with 250-pound bench press and 215 in the clean and jerk. The combination was 20 pounds better than runnerup Caleb Guthrie of Spruce Creek. FPC teammate Kevin Olmedo took fourth with a 350-pound total.
In the 129-pound class, Pham had a 465-pound total, benching 270 and cleaning 195 pounds. That total was 35 pounds more than Creek’s Pho Bui lifted for second place.
Waldhauer won the heavyweight class with a 625-pound combination. He bench pressed 325 — third best among all competitors in all weight classes — and hit 300 on his best attempt in the clean and jerk. The combined total was the most weight lifted at the meet, and Waldhauer won the heavyweight by 55 pounds over New Smyrna Beach’s runnerup Luke Warner.
Matanzas and FPC also had one second-place finisher apiece. The Pirates’ Skyelar Williams-Michaud hit a 280-265—545 in the 199-pound class, only 5 pounds off the winning mark set by Spruce Creek’s Cale Janssen. Tylin Lockridge of FPC was second at 219 pounds with a 350-275—625 combination that also was only 5 pounds shy of winning to Anthony Pearsall of University.
Other FPC lifters advancing included Tucker Graham (139), who was sixth with a 325 total; A.J. Aparicio (154), fifth with a 380 total; JoJo Santana (169), fifth with a 610 total; Jaden Santana (183), fourth with a 475 total; and Logan Sebag (238), sixth with a 475 total. Richard Knowles (169) of Matanzas took third with a 535 total.