Girls Weightlifting: Booker T. Washington’s Audiffred, Miller win titles at District 1-2A meet
Taylor Audiffred and Lydia Miller opted to join the Booker T. Washington High girls weightlifting team to supplement playing another sport.
It has turned out well.
Audiffred, a senior, repeated as the District 1-2A champion at 129 pounds and Miller, a junior, broke through with her first title at 199 pounds during Friday’s district tournament at Washington’s Ronnie Bond Gymnasium. The two Wildcats were the only Pensacola area lifters to be atop the medal podium.
Fort Walton Beach High edged Fort Walton-Choctawhatchee for the team title and those two schools comprised all other weight class winners in the seven-team competition.
“Last year we won districts, so this is definitely a little different for us, because we won as a team last year,” Audiffred said. “But it feels good to place and see my other teammates place as well.”
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Audiffred started weightlifting as a sophomore, while a member of the Washington volleyball team.
“My coach encouraged me to do weightlifting to work on my vertical skills,” said Audiffred, who lifted a combined 275 pounds in two techniques to win again. “And I ended up liking it so much I just stuck to weightlifting.”
Miller began weightlifting a year ago to enhance her performance in lacrosse, which she will continue to play this spring.
“I knew about the girls weightlifting program after Covid (2020 school year) and I was very interested in it and thought it would be a good second sport,” said Miller, who totaled 290 pounds with two lifts.
“This feels amazing and putting all the hard work into it paid off. It’s good to see Taylor win again as well.”
Washington’s Hannah Flowers (110 pound class) and Adrionna Chatman at 183 pounds both place second in their classes to help the Wildcats to a third-place finish. Gulf Breeze was fourth, followed by Pine Forest, Pensacola High and Escambia.
Addison Deese (110 pounds) and Nicolette Redmond (119 pounds), both from Gulf Breeze High, reached the medal podium with third place finishes. Pine Forest High’s Mia Warlick was third in the 154-pound class. Pensacola High’s Paige Knight was third at 199 pounds and Pine Forest’s Jada Washington was third at unlimited.
The rest of the top three in each weight class were either Fort Walton Beach or Choctaw lifters.
“The coaches at those two schools are so good and have been doing it for a long time,” said Washington coach George Schellang, whose team won its first district title in school history a year ago. “And they have some great programs over there and they are just so competitive.”
The weight class winners from Friday’s district meet automatically qualify for the Region 1-2A championship on Wednesday (Feb. 1) at St. Augustine High School. The other 16 lifters in each weight class for regionals will be determined by the next highest results from all four districts.
Schellang knew with the two Fort Walton teams now in this district, it would be a tall order to repeat as team winner. Fort Walton won by two points (70-68) as both teams tried third and final lifts in various weight classes to try and gain the last edge.
“It is a good feeling to see Taylor repeat,” said Schellang, who is in his 11th year as Washington girls coach. “She dealt with a lot of adversity last year at regionals and she came in and worked her tail off this year.
“I made her captain and she lived up to that. Seeing her repeat goes to show hard work pays off and she earned it.”
He has been wowed by Miller’s progression one year into competing in weightlifting.
“Lydia is absolutely phenomenal,” he said. “She is going to be a great lifter. Her main sport is lacrosse, but she has such natural talent in weightlifting and she’s so strong.
“When she works out, she doesn’t miss a rep, she doesn’t miss a set, and she’s very competitive and she wants to win.”
Schellang got started as a weightlifting coach to fill in for another coach that first season.
“Once a coach always a coach,” he said, laughing. “I couldn’t just halfway do it. So I built it from 12 girls that first year to 40-plus girls and last year we won our first district.”
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Weightlifting: Washington’s Audiffred, Miller win titles at District 1-2A meet
