“In our school, it’s pretty much understood that weightlifting is O.K. and you’re not a boy and you’re not gross if you do it,” said Leigha Nave, a senior at Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange who is the state champion of her 119-pound weight class.

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Extracurricular club programs for girls have sprung up around the country since women’s weightlifting became an Olympic sport in 2000. But Florida, with 170 high school teams that have produced two Olympians and several dozen world team members, has “set the gold standard” for the sport, said Rodger DeGarmo, director of high performance and coaching for USA Weightlifting in Colorado Springs, the governing body that oversees Olympic lifting.

“I think it’s awesome for this group of girls because there’s so many times you have to be tall, slender,” said Judy Miller, Jessica’s foster mother. “With this, you can be any size.”

At the state finals here, where Jessica captured the title for the third year straight, 240 girls competed in the bench press and the clean and jerk, in which a barbell is swiftly raised from the floor to shoulder height and then, after a pause that is harrowing to watch, overhead.

Image Stacy Cabrel, of Winter Springs, fell short of a 150-pound bench press in the 101-pound weight class. Credit... Chip Litherland for The New York Times

Some chugged bottles of honey before they lifted — the sugar high helps, they said — while others sat silently in a corner of the gym, summoning their strength. They ranged from 93.6 pounds to 379.1, from featherweight cheerleaders to hulking softball players and even girls who never before dabbled in sports.

“It doesn’t matter how much you lift,” said Jessica, a senior at Booker High School in Sarasota, after collecting her gold medal. “It just matters that you’re trying to make yourself better.”