AMONG THE BEST

As aspirations of an FHSAA State Championship may be a bit far-fetched for the trio of Monroe County qualifiers for the meet — A.J. Johnson from Coral Shores with Tanner Ross and Chase Leird from Marathon — the sheer magnitude of being at the finals, which will be held on Saturday, April 20, at the RP Funding Center in Polk County, with the best lifters from Florida their coaches expressed is quite the honor.

Both schools will be entered in two categories, Johnson qualified in the 219-pound weight class in both the traditional lifts, in which he is ranked 18th having cleared 260 in both the clean and jerk and bench press for a 520 total, and 11th in Olympic classification having put up 190 snatch and 260 in the clean with a 340-pound total. For the championship, his coach Erin Hamilton noted the Hurricanes senior is looking to lift more than 200 pounds in the snatch, more than 275 pounds in the clean, and top 270 pounds in the bench press.

“His goal is Top 10 for Olympic,” Hamilton said about Johnson. “It’s his second year at States for Olympic. He was very happy to have made it for traditional this year and hopes to move up a few spots on the leaderboard for that.”

For Marathon, Ross is ranked 14th of 20 state qualifiers at the 199-pound weight class in the Olympic classification, with a snatch of 185 pounds and clean of 245, while Chase Leird’s 305-pound total, 245 clean and 160 bench, is good for 18th in the 119-pound weight class entering the state championship.

“I think the experience will be good for them as juniors to look ahead, motivate them for next year,” said Marathon coach Jesse Schubert. “Tanner wants to squeeze into the top 10, he’s got another 10 pounds on each lift if he can hit it. Chase has been working on consistency and moving a little more weight.”

The Monroe County trio will weigh in on Friday, April 19, and the 1A lightweights, including Leird, will hit the mats at 9 a.m., while the 1A heavyweight, with Ross and Johnson, will take their lifts beginning at 3 p.m.