DeLand weightlifter Peyton McKenzie wasn’t content with just one individual state title. The Bulldogs’ 238-pounder won gold in both Olympic and traditional weightlifting at the FHSAA Class 3A championships on May 7.
McKenzie recorded the second-highest combined total at the 3A state meet with a massive 775-pound traditional score that included a 370-pound clean and jerk and a 405-pound bench press.
Nobody at his weight class was even close to beating his traditional mark, as Navarre’s Roan Strom was the runner-up with a 700-pound total.
McKenzie also had a 315-pound snatch to bring his Olympic score to 685 pounds, 25 pounds ahead of Strom for the Olympic title. His Olympic total was the highest of any competitor.
All three of his lifts led his weight class at a meet featuring Florida’s best.
While McKenzie was alone as Volusia-Flagler’s only traditional and two-discipline state champion, three other local lifters won Olympic titles.
Flagler Palm Coast had two of them in 129-pounder Cody Strawser and unlimited lifter Matthew McFall.
McFall’s 660-pound Olympic total featured a similar margin of victory as McKenzie’s traditional triumph. With a 370-pound clean and jerk and 290-pound snatch, McFall beat Lake Howell’s Luis Feliz by 70 pounds to win first.
McFall also placed third in traditional.
Strawser’s weight class was more competitive, but he cleaned 260 pounds and snatched 200 pounds for a 460-pound total that cleared second place by 20 pounds. Strawser also finished second with a 485-pound traditional score.
Most of the area’s success occurred at the heavier weights, and Spruce Creek’s Brian Begnoche stood atop the podium at 199 pounds to continue that trend.
Begnoche had a 615-pound Olympic total split into a 345-pound clean and jerk and a 270-pound snatch to win a state title.
Begnoche’s individual title and third-place finish in traditional led Spruce Creek to a second-place finish behind Pace in both disciplines. Traditional was more of the Hawks’ forte as far as the scoreboard was concerned, as they finished nine points behind the Patriots’ winning tally of 29.
Spruce Creek scored 25 Olympic points to finish 17 points shy of Pace’s 42, but it allowed the Hawks to edge local counterpart Flagler Palm Coast for silver.
Other notable results that contributed to the Hawks’ success were two silver medals from Christian Jones at 219 pounds, an Olympic silver from Grant Chandler at 119 pounds and a third-place traditional finish from Jackson Vella at 139 pounds.
Flagler Palm Coast scored 21 Olympic points behind its two state champions to finish third in Olympic. It also finished sixth in traditional.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 4 Volusia-Flagler boys win state weightlifting titles at Class 3A meet
Reporting by Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
