- February 2, 2026
FPC's Nya Williams (center) poses with both of her first-place medals in the 119-pound weight class. FPC teammate Aaradhana Moluguri (right) placed third in both competitions. Creekside's Lily Muirhead (left) placed second in traditional. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams completes a 200-pound clean-and-jerk on her second of three clean-and-jerk lifts. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Nya Williams listens to assistant coach Kenny Rosa after completing her first clean-and-jerk lift. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Lily Ames (left) placed second in traditional competition in the 139-pound weight class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Jordyn Crews cleans 160 pounds. Crews completed the lift to tie her personal record. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas 139-pounder Jordyn Crews jumps into the arms of coach Lisa Hineline after she lifted 160 pounds in the clean and jerk. Crews placed second in Olympic competition and qualified for the state championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Brianna Long (left) placed second in traditional competition in 169 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC 119-pounder Aaradhana Moluguri cleans 140 pounds. She was unable to complete the lift, but she placed third in both competitions and qualified for state in Olympic. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The FPC girls weightlifting team poses with the Region 2-3A traditional and Olympic runner-up trophies. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Jordyn Crews (left) placed second in the 139-pound Olympic competition, while FPC's Lily Ames (right) placed third. Creekside's Taylor Bush won with a 360 total. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas 183-pounder Katelyn Mead completes a 135-pound clean-and-jerk. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mainland's Serenity Causier cleans 150 pounds. Causier placed fourth in both competitions in the 183-pound class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams in her first clean-and-jerk attempt of 190 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC 119-pounder Nya Williams attempts to clean and jerk 210 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams attempts to complete a 210-pound clean-and-jerk, which is the state record for 119 pounders in Class 3A. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams cleans 210 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC 119-pounder Nya Williams is unable to complete her clean-and-jerk at 210 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Lynnsie Jones cleans 150 pounds. Jones placed second in traditional competition in the 183-pound weight class with a 295-pound total. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Cali Weehunt (left) placed second both competitions in the 154-pound weight class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Angelis Rosa (right) placed third at 110 pounds in the Olympic competition. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Nya Williams takes the top spot on the podium for the Olympic competition medalists at 119 pounds. FPC teammate Aaradhana Molguri (right) was third. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Cali Weehunt (left) placed second in both the Olympic and traditional competitions in the 183-pound weight class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Lynssie Jones (left) placed second in Olympic competition in the 183-pound weight class. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Lily Ames (left) placed second in the 139-pound weight class in traditional competition and qualified for state in both competitions. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas 139-pounder Jordyn Crews clean-and-jerks 160 pounds. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Palm Coast junior Nya Williams heads into the Class 3A girls state weightlifting championships on Feb. 11 as the prohibitive favorite to win two state titles.
Her regional qualifying totals are 25 pounds higher in the traditional competition and 40 pounds higher in the Olympic competition than any of the other qualifiers in her 119-pound weight class. And yet, technically, she didn’t have a great regional meet. Not by her standards. Williams missed her second and third snatch attempts and her third clean-and-jerk attempt.
That’s because she went for a couple of would-be state records.
She jumped 15 pounds in the snatch, attempting a 160-pound lift on her second and third attempts, a weight she has hit before and one that would break the Class 3A record at the state meet.
“We’ve been playing around with a lot of things with her in terms of taking bigger jumps, because she really wants to break the state record in the snatch and the clean and jerk,” FPC coach Duane Hagstrom said. “But jumping 15 pounds at her low body weight is not really a great idea. So I told her, our number one priority is to win the state championship. If we break the record, we break it. If we don't, we don’t.
“She's still a junior, so she’s got next year to come back and destroy those records. Records can always be broken, but they can never take that state title away from her.”
In the clean and jerk, Williams attempted 210 pounds after successfully lifting 190 and 200 on her first two attempts. A 210-lift would tie the state record. Williams got the clean and nearly completed the jerk.
“It was a super, solid clean,” she said. “I went for the jerk and locked it out. I just was a little off balanced, but it'll be there when it counts, of course.”
Williams completed all three of her bench presses with a personal-record 160 pounds on her last lift. She handily won both regional titles with a traditional total of 360 pounds and an Olympic total of 345 pounds. Only one lifter, unlimited champ Alexa Ayala of West Port, had a higher traditional total (375) than the 117.10-pound Williams. Ayala weighed in at 266.10 pounds.
Winning her first state title will be Williams' priority, she said. State records will come if they’re attainable.
“I am looking for a state record,” Williams said. “But my ultimate goal is to hit my lifts. I don't go into a meet searching for a PR.”
Williams has been accepted into the USA Weightlifting National Team Program, and will train with the USA Junior National Team this offseason.
“So at nationals in June, hopefully my numbers will be amazing and I’ll hit the B standard, which will qualify me to go to Mexico in October (for the Pan-American Junior Weightlifting Championships,” Williams said. ”I'm super excited.”
The Bulldogs placed second as a team behind Spruce Creek in both competitions at the Region 2-3A meet on Saturday, Jan. 31, at FPC. Creek won the Olympic title with 35 points, with FPC the runner-up with 32 points and Bartram Trail third with 29 points. The Hawks totaled 45 points to win the traditional title, with the Bulldogs scoring 41 points. Creekside was third with 33 points.
Four other FPC lifters will join Williams at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland for the state championships. Alexcia Lilavois quailified at 101 pounds in Olympic with a 190 total at regional. Aaradhana Moluguri will join Williams at 119 in Olympic with a 240 qualifying total. Lily Ames qualified in both competitions at 139 pounds with a 280 Olympic total and 300 traditional total. And first-year lifter Brianna Long qualified at 169 pounds in traditional with a 305 total.
Matanzas’ Jordyn Crews qualified at 139 pounds in Olympic with a 280 total. Crews matched her clean-and-jerk PR with a 160-pound lift, and then jumped into the arms of a coach to celebrate. She placed second behind 139-pound double-region champ and state favorite Taylor Bush of Creekside. FPC’s Ames placed second in traditional. Long placed second at 169.
FPC’s Cali Weehunt placed second in both competitions at 154 pounds, but didn’t qualifiy. Her 270-pound Olympic total was just five pounds short of the 275 cutoff. And FPC’s Lynnsie Jones placed second at 183 in traditional with a 295 pound total but needed 305 to qualify.
The tiebreaker in high school weightlifting competitions is body weight. If two lifters tie for a spot with the same total, the lighter lifter will get the spot. But what if two lifters tie who weighed in at exactly the same weight? That’s what happened at regional in the 110-pound traditional competition.
FPC’s Angelis Rosa and Spruce Creek’s Rylee Fernandez each weighed in before the match at 107.5 pounds. They each totaled 230 in clean and jerk and bench fo place second behind Gainesville Buchholz’s Sophia Flesner. The tiebreaker was another weigh-in after the competition. Rosa was heavier in the re-weigh by one ten-thousandth of a pound at 107.5001.
Neither lifter qualified for state with 240 the cutoff. But at the time, neither one knew that.
Both lifters were in a race to cut an ounce or two as the final lifters completed their bench presses.
“I didn’t want her killing herself trying to cut that last couple of ounces, but it could make a difference in qualifying,” Hagstrom said. “So, I told (Rosa), ‘Don't eat, drink.’ She put on a bunch of clothes, got a Jolly Rancher, spitting in a bottle. It helps with sailva, and they spit and spit, like wrestlers do.”
The reweigh didn't affect the team standings, though FPC would have been two points closer if the re-weigh went the other way. So, in the end it didn't matter, but it did provide a little extra drama at the end of the meet.
