Meet the All-Gainesville Area Girls Weightlifting Team and Ori Sela: Weightlifter of the Year

In Alachua County, it doesn’t take an expert to determine the best girls weightlifting program.

That distinction belongs to the Gainesville High School Hurricanes.

The ‘Canes, under head coach Stephen Bauer, have lost less than 10 regular season meets in the coach’s 22 seasons.

It makes sense then that GHS has a solid collection of great weightlifters over the years.

Ori Sela is the newest member of that fraternity.

The junior advanced to state in 2023, but she took her lifting up a level this season with a top five finish.

Now, she’s the Gainesville Sun’s All-Area Girls Weightlifter of the Year.

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Sela tied for first at FHSAA State for Class 2A in both the Traditional and Olympic categories. However, New Smyrna Beach’s Mopeola Tofade weighted more, which the FHSAA uses as the tiebreaker. Therefore, Sela landed in second.

It still ranked as tied for the best finish among any local weightlifters at state, held February 15-17 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

Below is the entire 2023-24 Gainesville Sun Girls Weightlifting Team of the Year. The group of 10 girls all finished in the top 10 at state in Traditional and/or Olympic in their respective classes.

They come from nine schools across the Gainesville area.

First Team

Ori Sela, GHS, Junior: 169 weight class; tied for first at the Class 2A state in Traditional and Olympic, finished in second due to tiebreaker; first at 2A-Region 1 Final.

Angel Poole, Chiefland, Senior: 101 weight class; 4^th in Traditional, 5^th in Olympic at Class 1A state; 2^nd in Olympic at 1A-Region 2 Final.

Delia Moses, Buchholz, Senior: 154 weight class; 2^nd in Traditional and Olympic at Class 3A state; 1^st in 3A-Region 1 Final.

Kennedy Smith, Bell, Junior: 199 weight class; 5^th in Traditional and 2^nd in Olympic at Class 1A state; 1^st in both in 1A-Region 2 Final.

Rianna Griffith, GHS, Senior: UNL weight class; 5^th in Traditional and 4^th in Olympic at Class 2A state; 1^st in both in 2A-Region 1 Final.

Second Team

Hailey Tharp, Newberry, Senior: 129 weight class; 7^th in Traditional at Class 1A state; 1^st in Traditional at 1A-Region 2 Final.

Brinleigh Weghorst, Santa Fe, Sophomore: 101 weight class; 6^th in Traditional at Class 1A state; 2^nd in Traditional at 1A-Region 2 Final.

Zyon Johnson, Williston, Junior: UNL weight class; 6^th in Olympic at Class 1A state; 2^nd in Olympic at 1A-Region 2 Final.

Sakiya Merriex, Columbia, Junior: 101 weight class; 8^th in Olympic at Class 2A state; 2^nd in Traditional and Olympic at 2A-Region 1 Final.

Savannah Parnell, Fort White, Senior: 101 weight class; 9^th in Traditional at Class 1A state; 4^th in the same at 1A-Region 2 Final.

Coach of the Year: Stephen Bauer, GHS

Bauer takes home the Coach of the Year thanks to two top five finishers at state, the only local coach to claim that in any class.

He’s been the coach of GHS for over 21 seasons and compiled over 120 regular season wins.

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville High's Ori Sela is the Sun's Girls Weightlifter of the Year