BOYS WEIGHTLIFTING SEASON OPENS

Marathon and Coral Shores making early gains

Coral Shores and Gulliver High School visited the Middle Keys on Feb. 8 to open their boys weightlifting season against Marathon. Many athletes are still working on figuring out their weight classes and opening lifts, making the meet a great opportunity to see what works and what needs to be tweaked.

Coral Shores’ Xavyer Arrington won the unlimited class by nearly 100 pounds at the meet, but it was more like a warmup for the defending state snatch champion. Arrington has the potential to put up some huge numbers this year in his quest to return to the state meet on April 15.

Other notable performances from Hurricanes include one from Julian Juvier, who won the 238-pound division with the help of a big 265-pound bench press. Keegan White (169), Daniel Warrington (129), and Sebastian Mollineda (154) also all had strong performances for an early season meet.

For the Dolphins, Yuni De Leon, a state qualifier in 2022, had good lifts in the 219-pound class, and Matthias Martinez (139) and Jesus Oquendo (129) performed well at the meet.

All athletes will have a couple of months to make gains and perfect their form prior to districts. The teams meet again five more times this season, alternating among Marathon, Coral Shores, and Gulliver until they face one another at districts at the end of March.