McCarthy’s Holguin-Reed gets state runner-up

Archbishop McCarthy senior Jessica Holguin-Reed picked up a second-place medal on Friday at the FHSAA Class 1A state weightlifting championships at Arnold High School in Panama City Beach.

She caught a flight back home to Davie on Saturday to switch bags and then a return bus ride Sunday to Gainesville to compete in the FHSAA Class 1A state cheerleading competition.

“The schedule is a little insane,” Holguin-Reed said in a phone interview. “I have been working really hard, so it was so cool to place where I did.”

Holguin-Reed, who placed second in the 119-pound division with a 285-pound total, lifted 120 pounds in the bench press and a personal-best 165 pounds in the clean and jerk to finish 35 pounds behind Baker High School senior Ryah Davis, who lifted a 320 total (140 bench, 180 clean and jerk). It was the second year in a row that HolguinReed won a medal at state. She was sixth last year.

Seminole Ridge senior Anabel Fernandez came away with a fourth-place finish in the 183 weight division at the Class 2A state meet on Saturday. She lifted 180 in both the bench press and the clean and jerk for a 360 total.

“It is a little bittersweet,” said Fernandez, who finished third last year and sixth the previous year. She was 22nd in her freshman year. “I guess it was one of those bad days. It’s honestly an accomplishment for me. It is not something I take lightly, and I am proud to have medaled the last three years. I would have liked to do a little better, but that didn’t happen.”

Archbishop McCarthy sophomore Alexis Green, who entered the state competition ranked 15th in the 199 division, came home with a sixth-place medal as she 305.

Wellington High freshman Elle Fields narrowly missed a medal as she placed eighth, despite lifting a personal-best 275 total. She was 15 pounds off the medal podium in the Class 2A 110 division. She lifted personal bests in the bench press (115) and in the clean and jerk (160).

“I am pretty happy I got to state,” said Fields, who won the Florida Weightlifting Federation state lifted personal-best championship for Youth Women in the 48-kilo weight class at Port Orange Spruce Creek High School before the high school season. “I wasn’t expecting to place, but I have three years left to do better. I didn’t initially plan on doing high school weightlifting, but I am glad I did.”

Wellington’s Lynn Gunnels took seventh place in the 154-pound weight class at the Class 2A state meet with a 325 total, just 5 off earning a medal.