By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola
At 119-lbs., St. Cloud’s Mikey Ziss does not strike a particularly intimidating presence. That is until he steps on the weightlifting platform.
After Ziss won two gold medals at the FHSAA State Weightlifting Championships as a sophomore last year, he continued his dominance on Friday night – winning both the Traditional (Clean-and-Jerk plus Bench Press) and the Olympic (Clean-and-Jerk plus Snatch) competitions at the 2024 Orange Belt Conference Championships held Friday night at Harmony.
It was not close.
Ziss unofficially tied the state record in the 119-lb. class with a successful 250-lb. lift in the clean-and-jerk (official record are only recognized at the state championship meet) and then followed it with a 185-lb. effort in the snatch to total 435 pounds in the Olympic discipline – winning his class by an incredible 180-lbs. over the second place finisher – teammate Brayden Politano (115-140-255). Ziss’ performance was so dominant, that he would have also won the 129, 139, and 154-lb. weight classes.
His performance in the Traditional was almost as impressive.
Ziss’ 215-lb. effort in the bench press to go with his 250 in the clean-and-jerk gave him a 465 pound total in the Traditional – again winning his weight by almost 200 pounds over second place finisher Jayden Green-Alemany of Harmony (145-135-280).
ZISS LEADS DAWGS TO OBC WEIGHTLIFTING CROWN
The performance by Ziss played a key role in St. Cloud winning the team title in both the Traditional and Olympic disciplined and allowed them to clinch their third straight OBC Team Championship and fifth in the last seven years.
Although both Harmony and St. Cloud had four individual champions in the 10 Olympic weight classes, the Bulldogs posted three second place finishes and seven third place finishes to tally 87 team points to finish comfortably in front of second place Harmony (67). Poinciana was third with 31 points.
The Traditional was a different story. The teams took turns taking the lead after several events and each also had four champions. And although both teams posted three second place finishes and Harmony had two more third place finishes (4-2), it was the points that the Bulldogs picked up at the bottom of the roster that allowed them to edge Harmony for the team title in the Traditional (75-67).
“We place a lot of emphasis on this meet for county bragging rights and tonight was about the team,” Aun said. “We felt pretty good about the Olympic discipline but we knew the Traditional was going to be a tough competition. Nick (Harmony coach Nick Lippert) does such a great job with his kids and Poinciana, Liberty and Osceola all had some dudes. We didn’t do as well as I thought we would do in some weight classes, but we definitely had some guys step up, hit some lifts and score some valuable points for us.”
In addition to Ziss, St. Cloud had double gold medalists at 154 in Jonathan Morales and in the unlimited class in Conner Howes. The Bulldogs picked up single championships by Raiden Hsu (183-Olympic) and Jayden Perez (183-Traditional).
Brothers Louis and Anthony Rodriguez led Harmony’s second place finish in both disciplines, as they each posted double wins in the 199-lb. and 219-lb. weight classes respectively. “No question they are our team leaders,” Lippert said. “They feed off each other and inspire all our lifters. They are the heart and soul of our team.”
Jason Isaraphanich took double gold for Harmony at 139-lbs.; while other first place finishes for the Longhorns came from Santos Torres (129-Olympic) and Dominic Trombetta (129-Traditional).
Poinciana and Liberty each posted a pair of double winners, as Eagles football standout Noah Otero won both the Traditional and Olympic in the 169-lb. weight class and Chargers standout Joshua Fabian won both titles at 238-lbs.
The post season in the sport begins next weekend. The Class 3A, District 13 meet will be held at Harmony next Friday night, with Osceola, St. Cloud, and Tohopekaliga participating. Celebration and Poinciana will lift at the 3A, District 9 meet at Davenport Ridge.
Olympic Team Scores: 1. St. Cloud (87), 2. Harmony (67), 3. Poinciana (31) 4. Liberty (17), 5. Osceola (12),6. Celebration (7), 7. Gateway (4), 8. Tohopekaliga (0). Olympic Weight Class Champions: 119: Mikey Ziss (SC); 129: Santos Torres (Har); 139: Jason Isaraphanich (Har); 154: Jonathan Morales (SC); 169: Noah Otero (Poin); 183: Raiden Hsu (SC); 199: Louis Rodriguez (Har); 219: Anthony Rodriguez (Har); 238: Joshua Fabian (Lib); UNL: Conner Howes (SC).
Traditional Team Scores: 1. St. Cloud (75); 2. Harmony (67); 3. Poinciana (27); 4. Liberty (21); 5. Tohopekaliga (13); 6. Osceola (10); 7. Celebration (7); 8. Gateway (0). Traditional Weight Class Champions: 119: Mikey Ziss (SC); 129: Dominic Trombetta (Har); 139: Jason Isaraphanich (Har); 154: Jonathan Morales (SC); 169: Noah Otero (Poin); 183: Jayden Perez (SC); 199: Louis Rodriguez (Har); 219: Anthony Rodriguez (Har); 238: Joshua Fabian (Lib); UNL: Conner Howes (SC).
