Girls Weightlifting: FWB, Baker sweep districts; Choctaw, Freeport, Navarre, finish runner-up
Led by a pair of sweeps by Fort Walton Beach and Baker in their respective district meets, area girls weightlifting teams flexed in the opening round of the postseason.
The Vikings won eight individual crowns and narrowly defeated runner-up Choctaw 70-68 in the traditional competition and 75-63 on the Olympic side, while Baker won a total of 13 individual crowns to outlift runner-up and hard-charging Freeport.
In 3A, Pace withstood a stacked District-1 field to defeat powerhouse Navarre and third-place Niceville.
Beginning with the Vikings, it was depth that led them. Choctaw dominated the lower classes with Liliani Lopez (101), Alysaa Crawford (110), Jennifer Morales (119) and Sophie Calderone (139) winning their respective classes. Alexis Plummer's 183-pound title gave Choctaw a team-high four traditional district crowns, but Fort Walton filled up the podium, finished top three in all but one weight class and celebrated individual titles by Remi Martin (154), Shamaria Rudolph (169) and Nyala Head (unlimited).
In Olympic, the Vikings had five individual crowns to Choctaw's four. Lopez, Crawford, Morales and Plummer won again for the Big Green, but Martin, Head and Rudolph capped their sweeps and Yasmin Lott (139) and Kiera Sinclair (199) won to put the Vikings on top.
In 3A, Navarre witnessed just how hard it'll be to defend its title. Pace, undaunted by the history of Navarre's six state titles in nine years, topped the defending 3A state champs 75-65 in traditional and 76-65 in Olympic.
Wracking up traditional titles for the Raiders were Savanna Christy (110), Sarah Shipley (139), Cailyn Cooke (154) and Katelynn Johnson (199). Cooke also won her Olympic event. Crestview's Madi Muse tacked on the Dawgs' lone title at 119 pounds in the Olympic lift and Kaitlyn Sheppard accounted for Niceville's lone title by winning the 139-pound Olympic lift.
In 1A, Baker won eight of the 10 traditional weight classes and five of the Olympic Classes.
Allison Baggett (119), Victoria Beckworth (129), Cayden Thompson (154) swept both events, while Lillian Jeter (169) and Grace Martin (199) won their respective Olympic classes and Adahline Burks (101), Briana Forte (110), Justyce Johns (169), Anna Price (183) and Maddie Mansell (199) won traditional crowns.
Jocelyn Garcia swept the unlimited classes for South Walton, while Freeport flexed in the Olympic portion with three individual titles: Leanna Reeves (101), Eanna Rodriguez-Lombardo (110 and Mia Miguel-Leon (183).
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: FWB, Baker sweep girls lifting districts; Choctaw, Freeport, Navarre, finish runner-up
