Wewahitchka weightlifters to compete at youth nationals this month
Wewahitchka coach David Peavy racked up many miles behind the wheel during the month of May.
First, he drove to Jacksonville for the 1A FHSAA track meet, held on May 17 and 18, and followed that up with a trip to Orlando for the Florida Weightlifting Federation State Championships, where two of his Gator lifters competed from May 18-21.
The Florida Weightlifting Federation, an affiliate of USA Weightlifting, is the “central governing body” in the state for the Olympic style of weightlifting. Olympic weightlifting involves the snatch and the clean and jerk.
Peavy reported that rising ninth grader McKenzie Hatcher won gold in the under-15, 71 kg weight class, and rising junior Ashlyn Ake claimed bronze in the under-17, 71 kg weight class.
Hatcher’s lifts totaled 126 kg, or 278 lbs, while Ake totaled 136 kg, or 300 lb.
After their success in Orlando, the duo will travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and compete at the USAW Youth Nationals during the last week of June.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort these two have put in,” said Peavy after his long drive home on Sunday.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.