Red Devil Lifters Excel In Meet

The Avon Park boys weightlifting team made quite an impression in Saturday's eight-team meet at LaBelle High School.

The Red Devils three seniors, Joel Cuencas, Alvin Hinson and Marvin Williams, all won their respective weight classes to lead Avon Park to a second-place finish.

"I'm really pleased with our performance," said veteran Red Devil coach Don Hickman. "We looked pretty good and Joel, Alvin and Marvin are our only seniors and they led the way for us.

"They've been working hard in the weight room and they showed great leadership for us against some good competition."

Cuencas, who won the 129-pound weight class in last week's Travis Todd Invitational, stormed to the title in Saturday's meet with a bench press of 235 pounds and combined that with a personal-best in the clean-and-jerk of 190 pounds for a winning total of 425.

Hinson, who also won his weight class in the Travis Todd meet, rolled to first in the 169-pound weight class with a bench of 325 and a clean-and-jerk of 260 for a total of 585.

Williams won the 238-pound weight class with a bench of 340 and a clean-and-jerk of 235 for a combined total of 585.

"I was so impressed with the guys on our team," said Hickman. "We hosted the Travis Todd on Tuesday, worked out on Wednesday and most of them competed in a track meet on Thursday.

"We left at 6 a.m. on Saturday to go to LaBelle and we still managed to come through with a solid performance."

Avon Park competed against Charlotte High, Sarasota High, several schools from the Fort Myers area and Sarasota Cardinal Mooney.

Steve Robinson managed to finish sixth in the 189-pound weight class for the Red Devils to score valuable points for the team.

Avon Park is back in action with an away meet on Saturday at Sarasota High.

"The meet in Sarasota is a big one with some quality programs," said Hickman. "We want to go up against good competition because that prepares us for the district tournament.

"We're in a very competitive district and the better prepared we are the better we'll do when it matters the most."