EDITOR'S NOTE: The Swnews4u.com Athlete of the Week is a web-only feature that will publish each Thursday throughout the calendar year.
By Jason Nihles, The Platteville Journal / Fennimore Times / Boscobel Dial,
and Derick Kelly, Courier Press
Blake Thiry, Jr., RB/TE/LB, Prairie du Chien football
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — Prairie du Chien junior Blake Thiry ran his way into the record books in last Friday night's 42–20 WIAA Division 5 Level 1 playoff victory over Clinton.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Hawks got on the scoreboard first with 9:24 left in the second quarter thanks to Blake Thiry’s first of five rushing touchdown’s of the game with a 11 yard touchdown run. Xander DeHart then made the score 7–0. Nick McCullick hauled in an Abe Amundson pass and raced 65 yards down the field for his first career touchdown in the second quarter to give PdC a 13–7 halftime lead.
The third quarter was a scoreless back-and-forth battle until Thiry scored his second rushing touchdown of the game on a 67 yard scamper with 2:26 remaining in the quarter. Clinton answered Prairie’s touchdown by marching down the field and scoring their second touchdown of the game as time expired in the quarter to make the score 20–12 with one quarter to go.
The fourth quarter belonged to Thiry as he added touchdown runs of 21, 40, and 32 yards as he ran his way to a program record 345 yards rushing on 28 attempts, breaking the previous record of 332 yards set by Zach Thornton in a 28–25 loss at Richland Center on Oct. 7, 2011.
Thanks to those three fourth quarter touchdowns by Thiry, the Hawks were able to comfortably withstand one final Cougar touchdown as the Hawks earned a 42–20 victory.
The Hawks improved to 8–2 overall with the victory, and it moved the Hawks into a level 2 home contest on Friday against the third seed Columbus Cardinals (9–1).
HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order):
Roman Friederick, Sr., RB/LB, Potosi/Cassville football
Friederick returned from a major knee injury after missing the last five games and rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns and made eight tackles in just the first half in his return to action in last Friday night's 40–0 WIAA Division 7 Level 1 playoff victory over Hillsboro.
Isaac Henkel, Jr., Fennimore boys basketball
Henkel placed fourth out of 138 runners with a time of 17:15.06 to lead the Fennimore boys to the WIAA D3 Poynette Sectional title last Friday afternoon.
Kylie Mumm, So., Fennimore girls cross country
Mumm finished seventh out of 120 runners at 20:31.61 at last Friday's WIAA Division 3 Poynette Sectional to earn her first trip to this Saturday's WIAA state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.
Mallory Olmstead, Sr., Lancaster girls cross country
Lancaster's number one runner crossed the finish line at 19:58.31 to finish third out of 120 runners at last Friday's WIAA Division 3 Poynette Sectional to lead the Flying Arrows to the sectional title and a return trip to state. Olmstea beat Boscobel individual state qualifiers Aleya Kliesner (4th, 19:59.81) and Nora Jillson (5th, 20:07.83) and Darlington's Raquel Reuter (6th, 20:21.39) for the first time this year, to lead Lancaster past the Redbirds, 61–66, for the title.
Leah Patterson, Fr., River Ridge girls cross country
Patterson finished eighth overall to earn the fifth and final individual state qualifier berth at last Friday's WIAA Division 3 Poynette Sectional with a time of 20:39.73.
