- November 17, 2025
FPC 119-pounder Nya Williams gets set to bench press 140 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams cheers a teammate on during her bench press. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Aaliyah Williams bench presses 95 pounds on her first lift. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC coach Duane Hagstrom talks to his girls weightlifting team after their first meet of the season on Oct. 29. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC 154-pounder Makayla Melton hit all of her bench press lifts including this one at 135 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC 139-pounder Lillian Ames gets ready to bench press 135 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC athletic training student aide Daniel Belkin (right) hangs out with Ima Skeleton at the Bulldogs' girls weightlifting meet on Oct. 29. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams benches 140 pounds on her third lift. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Nya Williams stretches before benching 140 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Palm Coast weightlifter Nya Williams has picked up where she left off last season.
The 119-pound lifter was FPC’s only double winner in the Bulldogs’ girls weightlifting season opener on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
FPC hosted Fleming Island and DeLand in a tri-meet. Fleming Island, last season’s Class 2A state champ in Olympic competition, won both Olympic and traditional in the season opener with FPC placing second in both.
Williams had the highest Olympic total of any lifter in the meet in all weight classes with 340 pounds. She also totaled 340 in traditional, which was the third highest total in that competition.
“The original plan was not to push her today,” FPC coach Duane Hagstrom said. “But the snatch was looking so snappy and quick and everything looked great, so against my better judgment, I made a 20-pound jump between her second and her third lifts, because her goal this year is not just to win [a state championship], but to break the state records in both the snatch and clean and jerk. And right now, she's five pounds away from both.”
She missed that third snatch attempt of 160 pounds, but her 140-pound snatch and 200-pound clean-and-jerk for 340 was 80 pounds more than the second-place total of Fleming Island’s Loreanis Maysonet.
“We went for the state record on the third (snatch),” Hagstrom said. “She caught it. She just got a little soft and loosened up at the bottom. But it will be there.”
Williams also had a 140-pound bench press to go with her clean-and-jerk for her 340 traditional total, which was 65 pounds more than the second-place total of Fleming Island’s Alyssa Gordon.
Williams, a junior, was the runner-up at the Class 3A state championships last season in Olympic with a 320 total and placed fourth in traditional with a 315 total. In June, she won three gold medals in the women’s U17 age group at the USA Weightlifting National Championships in Colorado Springs.
Angelis Rosa and Kelsey Coyne were the Bulldogs’ only other winners in the season opener. Rosa won at 110 pounds in Olympic with a 195 total. Coyne won at 183 pounds in Olympic with a 260 total. Rosa, Lillian Ames (139 pounder) and Lynnsie Jones (183 pounder) all placed second in traditional. Alexcia Lilavois (101 pounder), Ames and Cali Weehunt (154 pounder) placed second in Olympic.
Hagstrom said the Bulldogs concentrate on the Olympic lifts in training, but they have been a little behind in their results in the snatch.
“We've been struggling on the snatch a little bit with our confidence,” he said. “It got better today, but when we go to the clean and jerk, it's like a completely different gear gets shifted or something. In clean and jerks today, we had girls doing 10 pounds more than they've ever done before, with good technique and with more in the tank. We need that mindset to kind of rub off on the snatch. We train it just as much as we do the clean and jerk. I guess it's just the idea of that bar going over your head in one motion.”
The Bulldogs will host another tri-meet on Wednesday, Nov. 5, against Spruce Creek and Father Lopez.
Matanzas defeated Menendez 58-25 in Olympic competition at the teams' girls weightlifting season opener on Oct. 29 at the Pirates' gym. The teams did not do bench press.
Chloe Cheek (101), Elaine Padilla (155), Amara Nagel (119), Addison Hoeni (129), Jordyn Crews (139), Olivia Hueg (154), Katelyn Meade (183), Ella Raffo (199) and D'eria Hughes (unlimited) won their weight classes. Elle Bays of Menendez at 169 pounds had the top lifts of 170 (snatch) and 185 (clean-and-jerk) for a 345 total. Crews was next overall with a 115, 155 for a 260 total.
In Seabreeze's season-opening meet against Spruce Creek, Sandcrabs' 129-pounder Camila Arellano won both the Olympic (250-pound total) and traditional (280) competitions.
