- April 14, 2026
FPC's Matt McFall (center) and Wendell Weaver (right), placed first and third, respectively, in the unlimited weight-class Olympic competition at district. Spruce Creek's Jeremiah Hall placed second. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC unlimited weight class lifter Wendell Weaver cleans 295 pounds at district. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC unlimited weight class lifter Wendell Weaver completes a 295-pound clean and jerk at district. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC unlimited weight class lifter Wendell Weaver gets a hug from coach Duane Hagstrom after hitting a 295-pound clean and jerk lift at district. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Brady Putis bench presses 185 pounds at district. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Cody Strawser (center) and Mainland's Ray Tatro (right) placed first and third, respectively, in the 129-pound traditional competition. They both qualified for regionals in both competitions. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Cody Strawser bench presses 225 pounds. The junior won both competitions in the 129-pound class at district to automatically qualify for regional. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Jackson Fedun (center) won the Olympic competition and placed third in traditional in the 169-pound weight class at district. He qualified for regional in both. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Landon Gates (center) won both competitions in the 183-pound weight class at district to automatically qualify for regional. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Joseph Casanova completes a 310-pound clean and jerk at district. Casanova placed third in both competitions in the 238-pound class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Joseph Casanova placed third in the 238-pound class in both competitions at district and will move on to regionals. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Marlon Alvarado completes a 275-pound clean and jerk at district. Alvarado qualified for regional in both competitions in the 183-pound weight class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Mathias Parker (right) placed second in both competitions in 199 pounds at district and will move on to regionals. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mainland's Benjamin Grove (right) placed third in 199-pound traditional competition at district and qualified for regional. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Alex Huynh (right) placed third in 139-pound Olympic competition at district and qualified in both competitions for regionals. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Palm Coast did not have the depth to win the Five Star Conference or district boys weightlifting championships. The Bulldogs did not have the depth to win conference, district or region in 2022 either. But they went on to win the Class 3A state championship.
Spruce Creek handily won the District 4-3A championship in both competitions on April 8 at FPC. The Hawks defeated the second-place Bulldogs 91-66 in the Olympic competition and 97-54 in the traditional competition.
But winning team titles was not the goal for the Bulldogs at the district meet.
“I told the guys before the meet started, it's not about winning this meet today,” FPC coach Duane Hagstrom said. “It's about advancement. I'm just trying to get them the best opportunity to advance to regionals, and then just keep qualifying as many as we can.”
When the regional qualifiers were announced on April 13, the Bulldogs had 21 lifters moving on. They will be joined at the Region 2-3A meet at FPC on April 25 by eight Mainland lifters and five Matanzas lifters. Seabreeze qualified 12 lifters for the Region 4-2A meet on April 24 at Leesburg High School.
Four FPC lifters won district titles. Cody Strawser (129 pounds) and Landon Gates (183 pounds) won championships in both competitions. Matt McFall (unlimited) and Jackson Fedun (169 pounds) won the Olympic competition.
“We performed well,” Hagstrom said. “We just just don't have the depth to keep up with Spruce Creek in a meet like this. I feel like it was one of our better meets as far as consistency and not missing lifts.”
The Bulldogs had the best percentage of successful attempts in both competitions at the meet with 84.3% successful lifts in Olympic and 85.4% successful lifts in traditional.
McFall matched his school record clean and jerk with a 360-pound lift and benched pressed a personal-record 370 pounds. He won the Olympic competition by 100 pounds (640 to 540) over Spruce Creek’s Jeremiah Hall. But Hall bench pressed 415 pounds on his final lift to tie McFall with a 730-pound traditional total. Hall won the traditional title because of his lower body weight.
“He weighs 30 pounds less than me,” the 306-pound McFall said, noting that he is not likely to win any ties.
McFall placed fourth at state in the Olympic competition last year with a 535 total.
Gates achieved personal records in the clean and jerk (285 pounds) and bench press (250. pounds). Joe Casanova had a PR in clean and jerk (310 pounds) in placing third in both competitions in the 238-pound class.
Unlimited weight-class lifter Wendell Weaver bumped up 20 pounds to 295 pounds in his third clean and jerk attempt and completed the lift for a new PR. He received a bear hug from Hagstrom after the lift. Weaver placed third in Olympic competition and fifth in traditional.
Three Seabreeze lifters won district championships at the District 8-2A meet at New Smyrna Beach. Guarinoex Rivera Sise won the 119-pound Olympic title. Vincent Pedersen won both titles in the 129 pound class. And Dean Hayes won both titles in the 139-pound class.
