- November 26, 2024
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Aaliyah Lewis went from lifting weights in the garage with her dad to becoming FPC’s first state champion female weightlifter.
The bell sounds around 1 p.m., at Flagler Palm Coast High School. Students crowd the hallways as they make their way to seventh period.
Aaliyah Lewis walks through the straight hallway, one of the oldest parts of FPC.
Wearing a blue shirt and Bermuda shorts, Lewis, a senior, maneuvers through the sea of students. She’s smiling.
“Congrats, girl!” one students says. “Hey, Aaliyah. Great job.” Another: “You just won that state title, right? Baller!”
Lewis has turned into an overnight celebrity. A week ago, she was a member of the Lady Bulldogs weightlifting team. This week, she walks the halls of FPC as a state champion.
Lewis acknowledges the kind words from fellow students. “This is awesome,” she says, as her smile gets even bigger.
A little convincing
As a freshman and sophomore, Lewis was a member of the track team.
Growing up, she occasionally would lift weights in her garage with her dad, who is a high school weightlifting coach. But she never really thought about lifting competitively.
When Lewis was a junior, her younger sister, Brittany, was a freshman at FPC. Brittany planned on joining the weightlifting team, and she wanted her big sister to join, too.
“The coach kept asking me to come out, but I never went,” Lewis says. “My sister forced me to go to the meeting one day.” Soon after, she joined the team.
As a junior, Lewis consistently finished in second place at the competitions behind a lifter from Spruce Creek.
At the state meet last season, Lewis benched 170 pounds and clean-and-jerked 165. Both were personal bests but only good enough for a third-place finish. The girl from Spruce Creek finished second. The good news for Lewis, however, was both lifters who beat her were seniors.
Lewis had another year.
“I knew I had to work hard to win (my senior year), but girls come out of nowhere trying to beat you,” Lewis says. “That’s what I did. I came out of nowhere my junior year.”
‘Weightlifting is me’
Lewis knew she had a shot at the state championship, but she didn’t do a whole lot of lifting over the summer. FPC coach Duane Hagstrom says Lewis herself didn’t realize her full potential until she reached states as a junior.
In fact, Lewis could barely bench press 90 pounds when she first joined the team, Hagstrom says.
“I could tell there was an untapped source of natural strength there with how explosive she was,” he says. “I still don’t think we have seen exactly how strong Aaliyah really is.”
Lewis went from the 169-pound class last season to 183 this season. She cruised through the regular season meets, the sub-sectionals and the sectional finals. Then, it was on to the state meet Feb. 11, at the Kissimmee Civic Center.
Lifters had three attempts at each exercise. The attempts with the most weight counted for the total.
On Lewis’ first attempt, she benched 190 pounds and clean-and-jerked 155 pounds.
Lewis didn’t have to lift any more. She was declared the state champion with the 345-pound total.
But she wasn’t satisfied. She decided to do two more attempts in each exercise to try to increase her personal best.
On the final attempt, she benched 205 pounds and clean-and-jerked 180, for a 385-pound total. Lewis’ total was 60 pounds heavier than the second-place finisher. In fact, Lewis was the only lifter at the state meet who benched more than 170 pounds. She also had the heaviest clean-and-jerk.
“It hasn’t even set in yet,” Lewis says about being a state champ. “Everybody keeps coming up to me and congratulating me, but I still haven’t realized that I’ve won.”
Though she’s a state champ, being a female weightlifter isn’t viewed as the trendy thing to do, Lewis says.
“It’s hard because everyone always says you’re going to look like a man or that girls aren’t supposed to be that strong,” she says. “But you’re supposed to be you, and that’s what I was doing. Weightlifting is me.”
The best part, Lewis says, is getting some recognition for girls weightlifting.
“Maybe I’ve changed something,” she says. “Maybe people can see girls weightlifting as cool.”
And maybe reality will set in for Lewis when she puts her state championship ring on her finger.
EIGHTH IN THE STATE
Freshman Alexandria Bartley finished in sixth place in the 183-pound weight class with a 165-pound bench press and a 140-pound clean-and-jerk. With just two competitors at the state meet, the Flagler Palm Coast Lady Bulldogs finished eighth overall in Florida.
