Topic: News: Santa Fe's Linval Joseph Wins FHSAA 1A State Champs

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Santa Fe's Linval Joseph Fulfills Dream of Winning FHSAA 1A State Championship
By Cliff Olsen

For Santa Fe's Linval Joseph, Friday's FHSAA Class A state weightlifting meet was something he dreamed of, while the event also served as a nice retirement party for Interlachen's veteran coach, Pat Williams.

The 6-foot-5, 308-pound Joseph won the heavyweight class title with a season-best bench press of 410 pounds, before he cleaned and jerked 315 pounds for a total weight of 725 pounds.

"This was fun, I waited all day to do it, I really wanted to get first," said Joseph, who jumped for joy and took off in an excited sprint around the Santa Fe Community College gym after he realized he won the competition. "I'm happy with myself and my coach (Scott Pritchett) for pushing me this far. It's a dream come true, because I had a dream about it last night."

Joseph, ninth last year, became Santa Fe's 26th male athlete to win an individual state title. He drew stiff competition from Tallahassee Godby's Frank Grimes, who finished third with a total of 710 and runner-up Livio Cristiani of Sarasota Cardinal Mooney, who totalled 715.

After Joseph, a junior who has generated a lot of football interest from major Division-I schools, stuck the clean and jerk of 315 pounds, it forced Grimes to attempt 325 pounds, which he was unable to finish.

"It's awesome, but it's nerve racking," said Pritchett, also Joseph's football coach. "Linval Joseph is a fierce competitor, probably as fierce as anybody I've ever coached."

In the 129-pound weight class, Travis Davis posted a total weight of 455 pounds to grab his first state title, which he called a retirement gift for Williams. Thursday's event was the final meet in Williams' 31-year career as a weightlifting coach, which included the 1991 2A state championship.

"I finally did it. I'm real happy. I knew he was retiring and I always told him I would bring him a state championship home.," said Davis, who won despite logging around four hours of sleep the night before after returning late from a regional track meet. "I feel real good and it makes me feel good that he feels good about it too. He can retire happy now."

Panama City Beach Arnold won the team title, edging Avon Park, 20-19.

There were also three state finals records broken, two of which now belong to Blountstown's Arsenio Ivory, who won the 183-pound weight class. Ivory clean and jerked 350 pounds topping the previous mark of 345 set by Eagle Lake Lake Region's William Robert in 2003. He also set the standard with a total of 755, surpassing the 725 total Ryan Pagan of Altamonte Springs Lake Brantley put up in 1998. Ivory also tied the bench press record of 405 pounds, set in 1998 by Steve Ringo of Brooksville Hernando. He still holds the 169-pound weight class clean and jerk mark of 335 pounds, which he set a year ago.

Andrew Trowbridge, of South Daytona Warner Christian, benched a record 475 pounds en-route to winning the 283-pound Weight class on Thursday.

Other local athletes who finished in the top three include Fort White's George Griffith (third at 119 with 410 total weight), Union County's Donnie Clyatt (440, third at 129) and Suwannee's Joseph Kelly (470, third at 139).