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

Gavin Voigts, Sr., Platteville boys golf
COTTAGE GROVE — The Platteville boys golf team completed its season-long quest to win the Southwest Wisconsin Conference title by winning the SWC Championships Thursday at the Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove.

Senior Gavin Voigts shot a fine 6-over-par 77 to earn medalist honors by one stroke of Richland Center’s Roman Johnson (78) and freshman teammate Cole Herbst (80). Voigts and Herbt’s rounds enabled the Hillmen to post a combined 344 to nip runner-up River Valley (350) by six strokes. Senior Keegan Taylor (84) and freshman Glenn Mast (103) rounded out Platteville’s four-man score, and sophomore Jauron Blevins shot a non-counting 106.

The top four scores for each team count toward the final team scores. 

The Hillmen earned 12 conference points for Thursday’s victory at the SWC championships, and combined with 34.5 points won at the six regular season nine-hole SWC meets, captured the overall SWC title with 46.5 points. River Valley (38) finished second overall ahead of Richland Center (33.5), Prairie du Chien (19), Dodgeville (16) and Lancaster (14).

“Winning the SWC is a great accomplishment for our team,” said Platteville head coach Brandon Temperly. “Our team set this as one of their goals early on and they went to work. The varsity deserves a lot of the credit, but it could not have been done without the daily culture and work ethic that the team established at practice. I’m very proud of the type of team that this entire group has become. At the conference meet, we knew going in that we had the title within our grasp and the golfers did a great job staying with their mindset of success. Winning the tournament outright while confirming the league title was pretty special.”  

Voigts shot a 3-over-par on the 39 and a 3-over-par 38 to win medalist honors. His first-place finish Thursday also earned him a spot on the five-player All-SWC first team, after finishing second in the season-long individual points standings behind Herbst with 227 points. 

“Gavin had a great day and was incredibly steady throughout his round,” said Temperly. “The top three golfers in the league can go low at any time and for Gavin to take the medalist honor was special for a senior. 

HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order)
Davyn Edge, Sr., Platteville baseball
Edge had a monster day going 2-for-4 with a bases-clearing first-inning triple and a five RBI in last Thursday's 14–3 five-inning victory at Lancaster, which helped Platteville baseball clinch its first conference title since sharing the SWAL 1 crown in 2005. Edge also went 5-for-6 with two doubles, two RBI, three stolen bases and four runs scored in a 19–14 win over River Valley, which began as the second game of a doubleheader last Tuesday and had to finish on Wednesday when Tuesday's finale was suspended due to darkness (and no lights on River Valley baseball field). Edge is now batting .473 (35-for-74) with six doubles, one triple, two homers, a team-high 33 RBI , 29 runs scored, 12 hit by pitch, and a team-high 18 stolen bases for the SWC champion Hillmen (14–8, 7–3 SWC).

Cole Herbst, Fr., Platteville boys golf
Freshman Cole Herbst shot a 9-over-par 90 to help Platteville win the Southwest Wisconsin Conference title by winning the SWC Championships Thursday at the Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove. Herbst’s third-place finish at the SWC Championships was enough to win SWC Player of the Year honors as well as first-team All-SWC honors, with a conference-best 231 points.  Johnson (225), River Valley’s Gavin Davidson (196.5) and Owen Achenbach (195) finished third, fourth and fifth to earn first-team All-SWC honors.

Macoy Miles, Jr., C/IF, Fennimore baseball
Miles belted a clutch 3-run homer in the bottom of ninth inning to lift the Golden Eagles (12–11, 6–8) to a dramatic 5–2 SWAL win over visiting Mineral Point last Tuesday afternoon. Miles also went 2-for-3 with a triple, and a run scored in last Friday's 13–3 loss to SWAL champion Darlington last Friday before playing the role of extra-inning hero again in Fennimore's WIAA Division 3 regional quarterfinal victory over Onalaska Luther on Thursday. Miles hit a walk-off single to left field in the bottom of the 10th inning to send Fennimore to the second round. He finished the game 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and is now batting a team-high .362 (34-for-94) with eight doubles, 17 runs, a team-high 20 RBI and eight stolen bases.

Ella Vosberg, Jr., SS, Cuba City softball
In Cuba City's regular season finisher at Southwestern, Ella Vosberg went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI, with the first one being her first career HR. The win clinched the Cubans (19–2, 12–2 SWAL) the outright SWAL title after at 5–4 win over SWAL co-runner-up Boscobel (15–4, 11–3) just prior to the Southwestern win. Vosgerg went 1-for-3 and scored a run in the Cubans' five-run game-winning rally in the bottom of the sixth in the win over Boscobel. Vosberg also went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a pair of runs in a 6–2 win over Six Rivers West runner-up Highland last Thursday afternoon.