EDITOR'S NOTE: The Swnews4u.com Athlete of the Week is a web-only feature that will publish each Thursday or Friday throughout the calendar year.

By Jason Nihles, The Platteville Journal / Fennimore Times / Boscobel Dial

Grady Poppy, Jr., G/F, Platteville boys basketball
PLATTEVILLE — Platteville got back on track with a 73–67 Southwest Wisconsin Conference comeback win over Dodgeville Friday night.

Junior Grady Poppy had a game-high 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists to lead the Hillmen, who snapped a four-game losing streak with the win. But it definitely wasn’t easy.

Senior guard Bryce Crubaugh-Lockard scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the first half as the Dodgers (5–5, 1–2 SWC) built a 33–25 halftime lead.

But Poppy, who scored 17 of his 21 in the second half, and senior Myron Reuter, who scored 11 of his 18 after intermission, came alive in the second half to help the Hillmen outscored the Dodgers 48–34 in the final 18 minutes to pull out the six points win. Reuter also had five assists and three rebounds in the win.

Platteville hit the road Saturday to face Rockford Lutheran (Ill.) at the Warren (Ill.) Jamboree.

Poppy made 9 of 16 field goal attempts and finished with a season-high 26 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks to lead the Hillmen to victory.

After a back-and-fourth first half, Platteville outscored Lutheran 21–13 in the third quarter (high school games in Illinios are four quarters rather than two halves), then turned the game into a rout, with a 20–8 fourth quarter.

Steight made 5 of 11 3-point attempts and scored a career-high 17 points and had two steals in just 14 minutes off the bench. Reuter added 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, while junior center Jace Digman — who recently moved into the Platteville starting lineup — scored six points and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds in 18 minutes.

“We had some really outstanding individual performances from a scoring standpoint, but it was the contributions that cannot be attributed to the stat lines that were really important over the last two games,” added Huser. “We had guys getting lose balls, communicating at a higher level and then willing to make some gritty plays when needed.

“It was good to see the kids have some outcomes on the positive side after, what had been a tough stretch of games. We will continue to have tough stretches as we have some really quality teams coming up with how our schedule is designed, but I really like how the kids responded and continued to focus on each day and just continue to improve.”

HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order)
Avery Richard, Jr., PG, Platteville girls basketball
Junior Avery Richard scored a game-high 27 points and had four assists, four steals and three rebounds to lead Platteville to a dominating 64–31 Southwest Wisconsin Conference victory at Prairie du Chien last Thursday night. Saturday afternoon, Platteville held off visting Mount Horeb 70–66 in a non-conference game, playing without junior center Rianna Dye. Dye missed the game due to a prior committed that was planned for this weekend before the season even started. Richard scored a game-high 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and had five assists to lead the Hillmen, who improved to 11–2 on the season.

Richard, who has averaged 25.25 points per game over Platteville’s last four contests and is averaging a team-high 18.6 in 14 games this year, is also closing in 1,000 career points.   Richard was at 972 points entering Tuesday’s SWC game at River Valley. Her next chance to join the 1,000 point club would come Friday when the Hillmen travel to Lancaster (12–1, 4–0) for a key SWC showdown.

Cannan Wetter, Fr., 106 pounds; Drew Sander, Sr., 138 pounds; and Job Wetter, Sr., 157 pounds, Boscobel/Wauzeka–Steuben wrestling
The Boscobel/Wauzeka–Steuben boys wrestling team had a banner day at Saturday’s Kickapoo/La Farge Lee Griffin Invitational.The Bulldogs crowned three champions and had three runners-up among its eight competing wrestlers, and scored 147 points to finish second at the 25-team event. It was the best tournament finish in the brief history of the Boscobel/Wauzeka–Steuben co-op and the best by a Boscobel team in well over a decade.

Freshman Cannan Wetter at 106 pounds, senior Drew Sander at 138 and senior Job Wetter at 157 pounds each won titles for the Bulldogs, while freshman Ruger Wall (at 113), junior Ashton Udelhoven (at 132) and Chanse Johnson (at 165) each placed second. Job Wetter (15-5) won the 157-pound title with a pair of pins and a medical forfeit in over Blair–Taylor senior William Miller (17–9) in the finals. Wetter also scored a team-high 28 of BWS’s 147 team points. Sander used a bye and a pair of pins to win the three-man 138-pound round robin weight class to score a team-high 24 points. Cannan Wetter used a first-round by, a 25-second pin and a 16–8 major decision of North Crawford/Seneca freshman Harper Simon (19–11) in the 106-pound championship match.

Ryder Zdanczewicz, Sr., 190 pounds, Fennimore wrestling
The Fennimore wrestling team had a busy week with four events in seven days. The FHS boys collected five forfeits and won the three only contested matches of the night in a 47–6 SWAL duals win over Darlington last Tuesday night.Friday the Fennimore boys sent three wrestlers to this year’s 46-team Cheesehead Invitational in Kaukauna. Senior Ryder Zdanczewicz (20–8) went 4–4 and scored a team-high 42 points with a sixth-place finish at 190 pounds. 

After a first round bye, Zdanczewicz scored a 7–4 win to earn a spot in the four-man Pool A. The then went 2–1 with a loss to Warren Township senior Aaron Stewart to end the night. With the second-place group finish, Zdanczewicz advanced to Saturday’s eight-man championship bracket. After a 17–0 tech fall loss to eventual champion Eli Leonard (27–0) of Mount Horeb/Barneveld, Zdanczewicz notched an 8–1 victory over Wayzata (Minn.) senior Kaelen Lembeck. But he ended the tournament with back to back losses to finish sixth in the 32-man bracket.