The Montverde Academy powerlifting team entered seven participants in the 2019 American Powerlifting Federation (APF) Florida State Championships and left the competition with seven gold medals, broken world records, and qualifications to the AAPF National Powerlifting Championships at Myrtle Beach on April 13.

Entering the competition, over half of the MVA weightlifters were making their high school debut on one of the biggest stages in the state of Florida.

"The APF State Championship gave us a chance to develop some confidence in our new lifters before our AAPF National Powerlifting Championship in April," said Head Coach Eric Pauli. "I told the new lifters that this was their opportunity to become veteran lifters in a day and they ended up being rewarded for all their hard work."

The four lifters that made their debut were Jason Kong, Lenny Polcaro,  CJ Hamlin and Dawid Przybysz.

First-year lifters results:
Kong won gold in the Teen 13-15, Equipped, 114-pound class.

Polcaro won gold in the Teen 13-15, Classic Raw, 123-pound class.

Hamlin won gold in the Teen 13-15, Classic Raw, 198-pound class.

Przybysz won gold in the Teen 16-17, Classic Raw, 165-pound class.

As for the veteran MVA lifters comprising of  Colby Helms, Yodai Katsumata, and Joao Freire put on spectacular performances while recording World records and breaking MVA school records.

Veteran lifters results:
Colby Helms won gold in the Teen 13-15, Single-ply, 114-pound class. Helms holds the Single-ply world record and continues with an impressive performance with a 253.5-pound deadlift (115.0 kilograms) at a bodyweight of 110.0 pounds (50.0 kilograms). His lift would have set a new WPC world record if it had occurred at a national or world championship.

Joao Freire won gold in the Teen 18-19, Single-ply, 198-pound class deadlifted an amazing 501.5 pounds (227.5 kilograms) to set a new MVA school record in the 198-pound class deadlift.  Joao also set a new MVA school record in the 198-pound class squat with a lift of 440.9 pounds (200.0 kilograms).  The old MVA records were held by Montverde Academy graduate and current employee Juan Padilla.

 Yodai Katsumata won gold in the Teen 16-17, Single-ply, 181-pound class and is in strong contention to win gold at AAPF National Powerlifting Championships.

"I am really proud of the way our athletes competed this past weekend," said Pauli. "We will train feverishly to prepare for the April 13th AAPF National Powerlifting Championships at Myrtle Beach,
SC where we hope to win our share of gold medals and break a few AWPC national and world records along the way."