St. Cloud's Ziss Breaks Osceola County Weightlifting Records, Springs Sports in Full Swing

By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola

With the winter sports season officially coming to a close with the conclusion of the state wrestling championships (read about Osceola County’s state champions here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/osceola-county-claims-three-state-champions-fifteen-all-state-wrestlers/ ), spring sports are now in full swing.

Among the notable events, St. Cloud weightlifter Mikey Ziss – a two-time state champion – had a record breaking performance in a meet last week. Here’s a look around the county:

WEIGHTLIFTING

St. Cloud hosted a six-team tournament last week with county rival Harmony, Gateway, Osceola, Auburndale and defending state champion Spruce Creek. The Bulldogs finished second to Spruce Creek in both the Traditional (Bench plus Clean-and-Jerk) and Olympic (Snatch plus Clean-and-Jerk). Harmony was second in both.

St. Cloud’s Ziss moved up to the 129-lb. class (normally lifts at 119) and won both the Olympic (205-245-450) and Traditional (245-220-465), where he set new county and school records at that weight class. His 205-lb. snatch at 129 unofficially broke the state record by 20 pounds.

St. Cloud also posted winners in the Traditional with Jonathan Morales winning at 156-lbs. and Jayden Perez winning at 183.

Harmony, who is expected to challenge St. Cloud for the team championship at this year’s OBC Championships (March 22), had three lifters win both the Traditional and Olympic disciplines as Jason Isaraphanich (139), Louis Rodriguez (199) and Anthony Rodriguez (219) all took double wins in their weight classes.

FLAG FOOTBALL

The Orange Belt Conference Championship will be determined this week with its annual tournament that begins Monday with quarterfinal games. Harmony, which has won the last three tournaments and nine of 12 since adding the sport, will be the favorite (Read tournament preview here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/girls-flag-football-orange-belt-conference-champion-to-be-crowned-next-week/ ).

After a 2-0 start, the Longhorns lost to state power Robinson (28-0) last week but rallied to defeat East Ridge (38-6) and will take a 3-1 record into OBCs. St. Cloud was 2-1 on the season. Led by a tough defense and the play of quarterback Leena Bolejack, Celebration was 3-0 and had outscored their opponents 94-6.

BASEBALL

Two weeks into the young season, Tohopekaliga (4-1) was off to the best start in the county. The Tigers, led by Anthony Segarra (.600 batting average) and Sam Isturiz (.538) were hitting a robust .326 as a team. Jackson Kook (1-0, 1.31 ERA) and Elian Urena (1-0, 0.81 ERA) had allowed just three earned runs in a combined 20.1 innings pitched.

Freshman Sammy Echeverry took a .600 batting average into this week’s play, helping St. Cloud to a 3-1 record. The Bulldogs posted two wins last week beating University (7-3) and Poinciana (15-0).

Playing difficult schedules, traditional county powers Osceola (1-3) and Harmony (2-3) were at sub .500 records heading into this week’s play. Nick Palmi was .455 with a home run and six RBI to lead the Kowboys; while Yathniel Matos was leading the Longhorns with four RBI. Sophomore Kaleb Bermudez was hitting .538 (7 for 17) for the Gateway Panthers (2-2).

SOFTBALL

The most intriguing game of the young season will take place on Thursday when St. Cloud and Osceola – the two teams that played in last year’s OBC Championship game play on Thursday at 7 p.m. on the Bulldogs home diamond. St. Cloud, behind the two-way star power of Addison Felblinger (.412 batting average, 8 RBI, 2-1 on mound with 3.15 ERA) sits at 3-2 heading into this week’s play. Freshman Faith Ferrer was hitting .600 for the Kowboys (2-3).

Sophomore Emerson Aslan was hitting .600 and has bashed a county-leading three home runs through Hamrony’s first five games (2-3). Poinciana (2-2) was hitting .328 as a team but were struggling on the mound (7.28 team ERA). Led by junior Alondra Lozada (.714), four Lady Eagles were hitting at better than a .400 clip.

LACROSSE

In just his second year since helping create the program at St. Cloud, Head Coach Zach Beaverson has the Lady Bulldogs sitting at 5-0 this season. Brynn Fancher (15 goals) lead a trio of juniors that have scored 14 or more goals this season. In their inaugural season, the Lady Bulldogs went 7-11 last year and were outscored 175-87—allowing 9.7 goals per game while scoring less than five per game. This year, St. Cloud has averaged 13.6 goals per game while allowing just over six per game. Led by juniors Gavin Booth and Jackson McCoy (11 goals each), the Bulldog boys team is 3-5 heading into this week’s slate of games.

Both the Tohopekaliga boys and girls lacrosse teams sat at 3-2 on the year. Nathan Ilemsky (9 goals) and Lauren Schira (17 goals) led the two teams in scoring. Celebration boys (0-5) and girls (1-5) lacrosse teams were off to rough starts.

Because only three of Osceola County’s eight public schools sponsor the sport, it is not counted as an official OBC Sport.

TENNIS

Long the county power in the sport of tennis, Celebration was 4-4 in boys tennis and 7-1 in girls tennis. Playing out of the number one slot the past week, Cayman Pearce was 2-0; while #4 singles player Gabriel Santos was also undefeated (5-0). On the girls’ side, Valeria Lopez was 6-0 at #1 singles.

Led by junior Gabriella Alvarado, the Harmony girls were 3-0 this season. The number two doubles team of Erik Dimitrov and Matthew Lam were 3-1 this season in helping the Gateway boys to a 3-3 start. The Gateway girls are 4-2 heading into this week’s play as the #1 doubles team of Anaila Cooks and Aurelia Cooks were 4-1 overall; while Anaila is also the number one singles player on the team and

has gone 3-2 this season. Josue Dickson Castaneda remained undefeated as both the #1 singles player and #1 doubles team (along with Jefferson Hsieh) – going a combined 4-0 for Tohopekaliga (3-2). Anna Bella Guedez was playing number one singles and doubles for the Lady Tigers (2-3) team.

TRACK

Many of the county’s track teams will be at the Kowboy Invitational this Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

Last weekend, the Longhorns hosted the Harmony Track Invitational. County schools St. Cloud and Osceola participated. State power Vero Beach (179/118 team scores) won both the boys and girls team championship race; while the Harmony boys (91.5) and girls (100) finished a respectable second in both meets. St. Cloud (boys 70) were fifth; while the Lady Bulldogs (85) were fourth. Osceola (36 boys/ 35 girls) finished in 8^th place in both events.

County highlights in the boys’ meet including Harmony’s Alden Peterson, who finished second in both the 100 (11.31) and 200 (22.81) and also won the 400 (51.69) to single-handedly account for 26 of Harmony’s 91.5 points. St. Cloud’s Jahleek Lawrence (6-0) and Ethan Santinia (5-10) went 1-2 in the high jump; Osceola’s Jordan Mundle won the long jump (22-2 ½) and Harmony’s Ivan Ramos (144’-6”) took the javelin.

On the girls’ side, Osceola’s Korbyn Jones, a freshman, took second in the triple jump (34-8); St. Cloud’s Sofia Hauser won the pole vault (10-0) and Harmony’s Lailana Decker was third in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

The 2024 season opens this week with a full slate of games. Celebration (22-10 last year) is coming off OBC and District Championships, as well as a deep run into the state playoffs.

THIS WEEK IN SPORTS

(Key: FF: Flag Football; T: Track; BB: Baseball, SB: Softball, BLAX: Boys Lacrosse;

GLAX: Girls Lacrosse, BT: Boys Tennis, GT: Girls Tennis; BVB: Boys Volleyball)

Monday, Mar. 4