Marathon weightlifters earn medals at state championships in Lakeland

Marathon’s boys weightlifting program left Lakeland with more than just a showing at state. Max Childress and Isaak Vallejo each earned medals at the FHSAA 1A Boys Weightlifting Championships, while senior Matthias Martinez-Velez finished in the top 10 and Tanner Ross also reached the podium for the Dolphins.

The championships were held at the RP Funding Center on April 11 and April 12, with Class 1A lifting on Saturday. Marathon sent four athletes to the meet, and the results marked the program’s best state performance to that point. For a Monroe County school that rarely gets the same statewide attention as larger programs, the finish put the Dolphins among Florida’s elite in a sport that rewards repetition, technique and strength in equal measure.

Childress, lifting at 183 pounds, brought home a pair of medals with fourth place in the Olympic lifts and sixth in the traditional division. His numbers told the story of a lifter who could compete in both formats: a 265-pound bench press, a 275-pound clean and jerk and a 205-pound snatch. Vallejo, competing at 199 pounds, added another strong result for Marathon by finishing fourth in the traditional division behind a 335-pound bench press and a 235-pound clean and jerk.

Martinez-Velez completed Marathon’s core state lineup with an eighth-place finish in the traditional division at 139 pounds. He posted a 245-pound bench press and a 185-pound clean and jerk. Ross gave the Dolphins a fourth medal, finishing sixth in Olympic and ninth in traditional, evidence that Marathon’s state success ran deeper than a single standout performance.

That depth was built long before the trip to Lakeland. Marathon won team titles in both the traditional and Olympic categories at District 16-1A, while Coral Shores and Marathon combined for eight individual district titles. Thirty-two Keys lifters advanced to regionals after district competition, a sign that Monroe County’s strength programs have become a pipeline, not a one-off achievement.

Jessie Schubert, who coaches Marathon’s boys and girls weightlifting teams and also serves as the school’s year-round strength coach, has built that pipeline through offseason lifting and daily work that reaches beyond the weight room. Marathon’s lifting programs are open to athletes across the school, giving students in a less-publicized sport a path to state-level competition and, in 2025, a medal haul that turned a small Keys program into one of the loudest stories at Lakeland.