- December 25, 2024
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Bulldog champions: Rigens Andre, Dom Bennett and Nick Lilavois all won titles at the Class 3A boys weightlifting championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Rigens Andre won the 219-pound bench press/clean and jerk title by 20 pounds and clinched the team title for the Bulldogs. File photo
Dom Bennett won the traditional and snatch titles in the 139-pound class. File photo
Isaiah Rivers finished second in the 154-pound class. File photo
FPC coach Duane Hagstrom led Flagler Palm Coast to a state weightlifting championship in 2022. File photo
Rigens Andre had just blown away his personal record for total weight. His closest challenger was attempting a 330-pound clean and jerk to try to tie Flagler Palm Coast’s 219-pounder.
“The kid actually cleans it, but he couldn’t press it, so the weight goes down,” FPC assistant coach Brian Cox recounted. “We’re excited, but Rigs is Rigs. He’s just standing there.”
Andre won the 219-pound individual state title and at the same time clinched the Class 3A boys weightlifting championship for the Bulldogs on April 21 at Port St. Joe high School. But he took it all in stride.
“I told him, you just won the state championship,” Cox said. “He says, ‘That’s cool.’”
But if Andre had no trouble containing his excitement, some of his teammates were already in celebration mode.
“After Rigens won, it was mathematically impossible for anyone to beat us. The worst-case scenario was Niceville would tie us,” head coach Duane Hagstrom said. “I think they were trying to contain their excitement before the actual meet ended. So, they were like celebrating on the downlow.”
The FPC lifters who had competed in the first session huddled together on the second-floor balcony around a teammate’s cell phone to keep up with the scoring. Once they knew it was over, they sprinted down the stairs.
“I ran into a dude at full speed,” Nick Lilavois said. “I said, ‘I’m so sorry.’ Then I ran to the court to celebrate with my team.”
The celebration lasted late into the night. Lifters who had to watch their diet throughout the season were suddenly able to eat whatever they wanted.
“We all ate a lot,” said Dom Bennett. “We went to a few different food places and picked up some more food and sweets and brought them back to the hotel. Once all bets were off, everything was going down.”
Bennett, the Bulldogs' 139-pounder, won the other individual title to help FPC win its first state weightlifting championship in the traditional bench press/clean and jerk competition.
Lilavois (119 pounds) and Isaiah Rivers (154 pounds) were runners-up to help the Bulldogs hold off second-place Niceville by three points.
Bennett and Lilavois also won snatch titles, but that new competition was never the team's focus, the lifters said.
“The snatch doesn’t feel as good as the traditional, because this is the first year we were doing snatch,” Bennett said. “It’s not something that we’ve been working for for years now. It was just implemented, so it was just fun.”
On April 25, their first day back from school, the Bulldogs still thought the whole experience was surreal.
“I was going through Twitter, and I’m like, ‘Dang we really won,’” Andre said.
The Bulldogs gathered in the media center and chose their championship rings. Yet Hagstrom said it still hadn’t sunk in.
In his 20 years as FPC's weightlifting coach, his teams have gotten close. The Bulldogs boys were runners-up in 2016 when Spruce Creek and Fort Walton Beach Choctawhatchee tied for the championship. They were fourth in 2007, tied for sixth in 2010 and tied for ninth three times, including last year.
But this year was different. The state title wasn’t a goal. It was never even discussed. Bennett, who finished second last year, never looked at other lifters' results to see who his competitors were or what they were lifting. He focused on the team motto: Win the day.
“When we took the girls to the state championships this year, the expectation was that we were going to have a chance to win or at least place in the top two,” Hagstrom said. “And obviously we didn’t do that. We finished fourth. So, one of the things Coach Cox and I reflected on was maybe we put too much pressure on the girls.
”We made it a point to not talk about winning a state title. It never got mentioned. Focus on the day, instead of looking ahead. I think that played a part in how everything went down.”
DUANE HAGSTROM
“So, from the time we came back from the state championships with the girls, we made it a point to not talk about winning a state title. It never got mentioned. Focus on the day, instead of looking ahead. I think that played a part in how everything went down.”
Bennett won the title by body weight, but coming in he had no idea how close his competitors were.
“I did not care,” he said. “I never paid any attention to it.”
Andre won by 20 pounds. He tied the clean and jerk school record for 219 pounders with a 305-pound lift. And his 680-pound total was 20 pounds more than his previous best. And when he won, he didn’t know it.
“At all the other meets, I would look at the other people and see where they were at, but at the state meet, it was just me against the bar,” Andre said. “That’s what I was focused on.”
Lilavois, who also set two personal records, had wanted to be an FPC weightlifter since he was a youngster.
“My brother Carl used to lift in this program,” he said. “Ever since I was 7, I kind of knew this is the path I wanted to take. When I realized that we won, I was proud of being a part of Coach’s first winning team. It was very emotional. I’m just proud of being part of this team.”
