- April 17, 2024
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Coach Duane Hagstrom roars a cheer for freshman Lexi Buchanan, who set a new school bench press record. Photos by Jeff Dawsey
Freshman Lexi Buchanan has only been lifting since June of last year.
Kiara Bass couldn' t wait to tell her mother, Shannon Gutierrez, that she had finally bench pressed 135 pounds, after not being able to clear 125 pounds.
The Flagler Palm Coast weightlifting team may have placed third — just three points shy of second — out of 17 teams at its regional meet, but the lifters had several reasons to celebrate their individual performances on Thursday, Jan. 18, at FPC.
While none of the Bulldogs won an individual title, 11 of their 13 lifters placed in the Top 6, and several broke school
“Any time your team is breaking records, you know you're doing something right.”
DUANE HAGSTROM, FPC weightlifting coach
records. They will all be placed in a statewide pool for their divisions, and the Top 20 weight totals will advance to the state final meet.
Broken records
Tiara Sankar (101) broke the school bench record with 125 pounds and total record with 245 pounds. Jessica Roberts (119) broke the clean and jerk record with 135 pounds. Drew Woodall (129) broke the bench record with 135 pounds, and freshman Lexi Buchanan (unlimited) broke the bench record with 180 pounds. Most of her teammates and coach swarmed Buchanan, celebrating her accomplished feat.
"I was very surprised because I never thought that I would have been able to break a school record as a freshman," Buchanan said. "A lot of freshmen haven't done that."
Influenced by her brothers, Buchanan took up the sport in June 2016, and she's already breaking records.
On witnessing several of his lifters break school records, head coach Duane Hagstrom said, "Any time your team is breaking records, you know you're doing something right.”
