Oct. 29 marked opening day for Monroe County weightlifters. The Lady Fins and Conchs traveled to Coral Shores for the first official competition of the season, and the Conchs came home with the win. Key West outscored Marathon and Coral Shores in both the Olympic and traditional events. Marathon was second in Olympic, while Coral Shores finished in the runner-up spot in traditional.
In Florida high school weightlifting, athletes perform three lifts and are divided into 10 weight classes. The traditional event combines an athlete’s lifts in the bench press and clean and jerk, then the clean and jerk is paired with the snatch lift for the Olympic event scoring. Last week’s competition saw double winners in all but one weight class.
Key West’s Althea Olsen had a pair of wins at 101 pounds. Caylee Moore, Camila Linares and Aaliyah McLeod were also double winners at 119, 169 and 199, respectively. Ava Walker won the traditional event at 139 to help boost the Conchs into first place.
Coral Shores had double wins from Emily Hurt in the 101-pound class, and Vanessa Gabriel did the same in the Unlimited category.
Marathon’s Ella Evans claimed first in both events at 129, as did Adelle Bainbridge at 154 and Justice Lee Isom at 183. Tinashay Cunningham won the Olympic event at 139.
Team scoring for weightlifting events awards points for the first four places in regular-season meets, but to determine which athlete had the top performance, a little more math is required. There are several equations used to calculate winners, but Florida uses the Sinclair Coefficient. The Sinclair compares a lifter’s totals in each lift with their individual body weight to determine who is the strongest competitor with their individual sizes factored in.
Last week, the top lifter was Marathon’s Justice Lee Isom, the three-time state champ who won by a large margin in both events. Ella Evans was second and Caylee Moore was third in both categories.
JACKSON GARCIA/Keys Weekly
