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Longhorns win fourth OBC lift crown in a row PDF Print E-mail
Sports
Friday, 08 April 2011 15:10
By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
While his lifters may have been grunting in the Harmony and St. Cloud weight rooms over the last week, Longhorns Coach John Wallauer, Jr. was smiling for the most part.
Wednesday at St. Cloud, the Longhorns claimed championships in six of the 10 weight classes at the Orange Belt Conference meet. Harmony (85 points) still had to work to defeat the host Bulldogs (60) to claim its fourth consecutive OBC team title. Osceola (39), Celebration (15), Liberty (9), Poinciana (7) and Gateway (5) followed.
On March 30 at Harmony, the team placed second in the Class 2A District 6 boys weightlifting meet, sending six lifters on to the state meet on Friday at the Kissimmee Civic Center.
Wallauer said the team’s performance the last two weeks has exceeded his expectations.
“At the start of the year I thought we’d get five guys to state. We’ve got six, and had a seventh lose a tie-breaker on body weight, so that’s great,” he said. “Then we had three guys set school records in the bench press this week. We’ve achieved our goals and the guys lifting next week did very well.”
Austin Tapp at 154 pounds, Hans Schroeder at 183 and Larry Barber at 199 were the record-breakers; Tapp and Schroeder are among the lifters — seven total from Osceola County — at the state meet.
Tapp (280-205—485), Schroeder (310-255—565) and Barber (315-265—580) won conference titles for Harmony. Schroeder, like at the district meet, was seriously pushed by teammate Trey Bartlett (285-275—560) on Wednesday. Both will lift Friday.
Dominic DeMunno won the OBC at 139 (250-250—500) and will try to embellish on his fifth place finish at 129 pounds at last year’s state meet. C.J. Clayton (169 pounds, 290-255—545) and Austin Ocasio (345-270—615) were Harmony’s other OBC champions.
St. Cloud had two winners, Brian Spain (225-185—410) at 129 and Aaren Hoffman (315-250—565) at 238.
Celebration’s David Akins (180-155—335) won at 119 pounds, and Osceola’s Reggie Turner (330-265—595) and Adam Stickel (290-295—585) dominated the heavyweight class.
Bartow (54) won the 2A-6 meet last week, with Harmony (45) and St. Cloud (20) fourth.
“It was OK, it’s not perfect,” Wallauer. “I’m happy we got so many guys but disappointed that it all didn’t come together for us to win.”
Spain, DeMunno, Tapp, Clayton, Schroeder, Bartlett and Ocasio make up the county’s roster of lifters at the Civic Center Friday.
Clayton, seeded ninth of 18 lifters based on district meet numbers, is the highest seed of the seven.
The Longhorns were third at the Class A meet in 2008, when heavyweight Nick Sardoni won the state title thanks to a 500-pound bench press.
“I feel very good about it,” Wallauer said. “I think we can get three guys to medal. Just looking at the past results, if we do what I think we can, we could get up into the top six. We just need to have a good day.”
The chances of that good day are drastically helped by having the state meet a short drive away.
“Being able to sleep in, driving 20 minutes, it’s perfect,” he said. “Some of our guys volunteered at the girls’ state meet (in February), so they’ve even seen the setup so it won’t be at all new to them.”
The lifting at the Kissimmee Civic Center begins Friday at noon. Admission is $8, parking is $5. The Class A meet is on Saturday. No Osceola County lifters qualified in Class A.
 

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