Making History: Moorhead’s D’Agostino Qualifies for World Weightlifting Junior Championships

Will compete in Saudi Arabia for USA Weightlifting in March

MOORHEAD, Minn. — When Christano D’Agostino arrived at Moorhead high school as a freshman he was looking for a way to gain an advantage on the baseball field  after taking a weightlifting class along with a little belief from his coach sport became part of life.

We just saw his physical stature. You could told he was built for the sport,” Moorhead Weightlifting Coach Cory Herrmann said. “He took a little bit of convincing but as soon as he got that taste for success and the crowd cheering for him, he was hooked right away.”

“He saw very quickly how much more powerful he was hitting the ball. How much more powerful he was throwing the ball,” assistant coach John Lubitz said. Taking off. Things like that and that’s what I think really initially grabbed him was he was seeing those gains from the weight room applying to other sports and that’s what eventually really hooked him.”

The moment D’Agostino knew weightlifting was something he could be successful in was this past February when breaking the Minnesota state and Moorhead school record for total weight.

“I hit 296 and that number I looked at compared to the rest of the other junior athletes and two weeks later, I went to junior nationals in California,” D’Agostino said. “I put up a little less than my best total at 291 but I still could get first in my weight class of all the other junior athletes there and that put me on the big stage. It really showed me what I could do.”

296 ended up being the magic number to qualify for world juniors at the 96 kilogram class. The national junior competition was done online over zoom — and D’Agostino ranked sixth among 900 other lifters placing him as one of 12 moving on to Saudi Arabia.

“The number one thing he is very coachable. He’s constantly looking for feedback and allows looking for ways to improve,” Lubitz said. “The way he accepts coaching is astounding. You wish you had from all the athletes that you work with. In that way, he’s very driven. He’s very self-motivated and if the lights are on in the weight room, he’s probably in there.

“A lot of it because we didn’t have that face to face interaction. That live interaction. We follow a lot of his stuff on Instagram,” Herrmann said. “He’s still training in his garage so honestly its mostly him. His own self-motivation to keep pushing further in further.”

“Its a testament to the last four years I’ve put into weightlifting and the weightlifting program at Moorhead high school,” D’Agostino said. “The coaches and all that. What they’ve helped me get through. It really just keeps me pushing forward. Its been tough the past year with covid and no events to really train for. This was something to train four and look forward to.”

When it comes to expectations on the world stage, D’Agostino knows its not an easy task he’s just looking to give his best performance.

“Its tough in my weight class. There are people who can lift a lot more weight than me in the world comparable so that’s motivation with in itself and I know I have to do some crazy things to win a medal at the junior championships,” D’Agostino said. “I’ll take it for the experience and I’ll use moving forward as well to build confidence and try to become the strongest athlete that I can.”

You heard coach Herrmann mention A’agostino’s Instagram. Its a great source to go and find him training. Two accounts _chrisanto and the other santolifts. Being a Cobber baseball player, he  was approved to miss two weeks of the season to attend.