- February 18, 2026
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Nearly an hour passed, and the Pirates were waiting.
The results of the Florida High School Athletic Association's girls weightlifting state championships already were official, but the crowning moment still hadn't arrived.
Finally, the medals were being awarded to top-six finishers across 10 weight classes in two styles, Olympic and Traditional. That amounted to 120 names being called.
The top 10 2A high schools in each style were also announced one-by-one.
“Braden River” was the last high school to sound over the RP Funding Center's loudspeakers in Lakeland.
Capturing the title in Olympic style, the Pirates were basking in an unprecedented accomplishment — the first team state girls weightlifting title in program history.
“I thought I would have words,” said coach Jordan Borges. “As a coach, a lot of thoughts go on in your head. ‘Can we do it?’ ‘What if we do?’ I thought I would be able to put everything together and have my emotions in place, but I just don’t.”
Senior Payton Mangay-Ayam, senior Chloe Pogoda, junior Jeaniya Edwards, sophomore Ellen Lehman, senior Taylor Ford and senior Alora Parcells powered the Pirates. Those six medalists earned 28 points combined, beating out River Ridge’s 24 and New Smyrna Beach’s 19.
In Olympic competition, Pogoda and Edwards secured silver in the 183- and 199-pound weight classes, respectively. Lehman, meanwhile, brought home bronze in 129 after last year becoming the program’s first freshman to medal at states.
Rounding out the bunch in the Olympic class, Ford placed third in 139 while Parcells finished fourth. Those two — alongside Mangay-Ayam and Pogoda — polished off their high school careers as championship contributors.
“The word to describe today is ‘proud,’” Ford said. “I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of all my teammates and I did the best that I probably have ever done at any meet.”
Mangay-Ayam was the golden girl. She claimed both top prizes for the 129-pound weight class by lifting 340 in Traditional and 335 in Olympic. The next-closest finishers were 35 and 40 pounds shy of those marks, respectively.
The decorated senior hit every one of her nine lifts on the day. In doing so, she put up highs of 190 in the clean and jerk, 150 in the bench press and 145 in the snatch.
Entering this season, she boasted four state medals, which qualified as the most of any female lifter at Braden River High School.
Her legacy has since become even more unmatched. She’s now the first and only individual state champion for either style in program history.
“It didn’t really click until after Jordan pulled me over and was like, ‘You really did it,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I really did,’” Mangay-Ayam said. “It was just a lot of emotions.”
Adversity worked against her throughout 2025-26. It struck months before she stepped onto the platform under the bright lights of RP Funding Center.
During this past offseason, she re-aggravated a left quad injury she had suffered during her gymnastics career. It occurred five or six years ago, per Borges, and before she joined weightlifting as a freshman. She felt it, still, in Lakeland.
Mangay-Ayam also dropped two weight classes from 154 to 129 for her senior season. That meant leaving behind the only class she had ever known at the state meet and testing herself against entirely new competitors.
She pushed through both issues, putting 2025's second- and fourth-place individual shortcomings behind her.
“I switched my mentality,” Mangay-Ayam said. “My mentality last year was very serious and strict — just weightlifting. This year, I really just had fun with it.”
Borges has been by her side, through thick and thin, for the last four years. He’s coached every step of her growth as a high school weightlifter. He’s never forgotten how it started.
Tiffanee Mangay-Ayam, her mother, came to sports orientation ahead of the 2022-23 season. She walked up to Borges and then-junior Jada Phillips to discuss how her daughter would accomplish great things as a competitor for their program.
Once she walked away, Borges and Phillips quickly brushed off her words.
“We looked at each other like, ‘Yeah, I bet,’” Borges said. “We had heard that a million times.”
But those words eventually rang true. Payton Mangay-Ayam completed her Pirates career with a program-best six individual state medals.
“The perseverance… nobody’s there to watch that. Nobody gives her credit for that,” Borges said. “The kid had the heart — the heart to be a champ.”
Mangay-Ayam was one of many who joined this program before it had ever won a regional title, let alone competed for a state title.
Since 2023-24, the Pirates have won back-to-back-to-back regionals. They've won four district titles in a row.
They didn't just appear at the state meet this season. They won it.
Newcomers waited months for this moment. Seniors waited four years. Their coach, now in his 10th year on staff, had waited even longer.
All the waiting was no more as they stood on the stage, together, with gold hanging from their necks.
“We’ll live on forever,” Borges said.
