Football state champions lead this week's Tremendous 10 nominees

Roy Fuoco, The Ledger
·3 min read
Lakeland won the county traditional weightlifting title on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at Lake Wales High School.
Lakeland won the county traditional weightlifting title on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at Lake Wales High School.

Lakeland senior Larry Jones and Lake Wales senior Trent Grotjan won state titles in football and now they are continuing that success in boys weightlifting. They head this week's list of Tremendous 10 nominees that also includes baseball and softball players and track and field athletes.

Last week, McKeel's Ryan Walker won the Tremendous 10 poll with 58.73 percent of the vote. Victory Christian's Kaylie Whittenton finished second with 39.3 percent of the vote.

Rounding out the top 10 are Lake Gibon's Gabby Tedesco, Victory Christian's Trent Lewis Lakeland's Nic Patridge, Fort Meade's Azaria Whitehurst, Winter Haven's Kjei Parker, Lake Gibson's Giannie Maldonado, Auburndale's Nate Gabriel and Jordan Christian's Zay Mosley.

Voting for the Tremendous 10 poll will be open until noon on Friday.

Here are this week's list of nominees:

Lakeland senior Larry Jones (boys weightlifting) on the Traditional and Olympic titles in the 238-pound weight class at the Polk County Boys Weightlifting Meet. He lifted 650 pounds in the Traditional competition and 515 pounds in the Olympics competition.

Lake Region sophomore Margaret Jenkins (softball) batted .438 (7 for 16) with an RBI and five runs scored, and she also pitched a three-hitter in a victory over Bartow in the championship game of the Bartow Home of Champions softball tournament.

Santa Fe Catholic sophomore Gavin Steadman pitched five innings and allowed two unearned runs on just one hit against Owasso, and he also batted .400 (4 for 10) with a double and two RBIs in three games. For the season, he is batting .391 with four RBIs.

Lake Wales senior Trent Grotjan (boys weightlifting) won the county title in the 199-pound weight class in both the the Traditional and Olympic competition at the Polk County meet.

Auburndale senior Kassidy Pontbriant broke out of an 0-for-14 slump by batting .471 (8 for 17) with two home runs, five RBIs in five games. She also pitched in four games and went 2-0 with as she allowed just one earned run in 23 1/3 innings with 37 strikeouts and just two walks. For the season, she is now batting .258 and is 5-1 with a 0.27 ERA.

Winter Haven sophomore Dashanique Henry (girls track and field) won the long jump (18.05) and the 200 (25.03) at the Kowboy Invitational.

Lake Wales senior Clayton Fletcher (baseball) batted .400 (4 for 10) in three games with a double and three RBIs. For the season his is batting .269 with six RBIs.

Auburndale senior Garrett Frost (baseball) homered went  3 for 4 with four RBIs in a victory over McKeel. He also doubled and batted .667 (4 for-6) in two games. He is batting .500 for the season with two home runs and eight RBIs.

Lakeland junior Jose Garcia (baseball) batted .500 (3 for 6) with two doubles and an RBI in two Lakeland wins. For the season, he is batting .240.

Bartow's Jihad Brown (boys track and field) won the 200 in 23.15 seconds and the 400 in 52.02 at the Ridge Open.

Send Tremendous 10 nominations to roy.fuoco@theledger.com by noon every Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Football state champions lead this week's Tremendous 10 nominees