NOTE: Each week, the swews4u.com sports editors; A.J. Gates (Grant County Herald Independent), Jason Nihles (Platteville Journal), Tom "Gunner" Gunnell (Republican Journal) and Erik Olson (The Richland Observer) will combine to nominate or "Prep Performers of the Week" in volleyball, cross country, boys soccer, girls swimming and girls golf. If you don't agree with our rankings or you feel we missed a standout performance, feel free to post a comment and plead your case.
WEEK 2 PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK (Aug. 23-29) -
VOLLEYBALL
Katelyn Hoppman (Southwestern, sr.) - slammed a team-high 38 kills and served up 14 aces to go with 11 digs and 9 blocks to lead Southwestern to the championship of last Saturday's nine-team Six Rivers Invitational at Shullsburg. Hoppman and the Wildcats swept Barneveld (25-10, 25-12) and Belmont (25-7, 25-9) in pool play to advance to the gold bracket championship pool. Southwestern then swept defending WIAA Division 4 state champion Highland (25-13, 25-6) and Saturday's tourney runner-up Potosi (25-19, 25-9) to claim the team title. A year ago Hoppman and the Wildcats ended Cuba City's seven-year reign as conference champion. Southwestern is once again the favorite to win this year's SWAL title.
Mackenzie Bartels (Platteville, jr.) - when classmate and fellow middle hitter Julia Lawinger was knocked out of the tournament with a sprained thumb during Platteville's third match of the day at the West Salem Invitational, Bartels stepped up her game and filled in the absence left by the injured all-conference performer. Bartles registered 30 kills and 8 blocks to lead Platteville to third place at the eight-team tournament. Platteville won nine of the 14 matches its played (two each against all seven other teams) and finished behind only Eau Claire North (14-1) and runner-up Mukwonago (13-2).
Alison Klug (Fennimore, sr.) - totaled 24 kills, 47 digs and 7 aces to lead the Golden Eagles to a 4-1 second place finish at Saturday's Bellville Invite. The Golden Eagles defeated Princeton, 25-9, 25-7, Fall River, 25-22, 25-11, and Oregon, 25-22, 25-21 in the best two-out-of-three games in opening round pool play. Fennimore then defeated host Belleville 25-11, 25-13 in the semifinals, before suffering a 15-25, 17-25 loss to McFarland in the championship match.
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
Zach McCann (Riverdale, sr.) - finished seventh out of 69 runners with a time of 19:19.8 at Saturday's Westby Invite.
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Anna Schellhorn (Riverdale, sr.) - placed a team-best 12th out of 53 runners with a time of 19:36.4 at Westby on Saturday.
BOYS SOCCER
Logan Thole (Lancaster, sr.) - scored a hat trick (three goals) and passed out an assist in Platteville/Lancaster's 10-0 victory over River Valley last Thursday. Thole also scored both Hillmen goals in a 3-2 overtime loss at Dodgeville last Tuesday. The Hillmen are now 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the Southwest Wisconsin Conference after a 5-0 non-conference loss to Monroe on Saturday.
GIRLS SWIMMING
Maddie Kieler (Platteville, so.) - was part of three top-4 relay finishes at Saturday's Dubuque Senior Ram Relays. Kieler teamed with freshman Melanie Schaefer to earn a second place finish in the 2x500-meter freestyle, was part of the third-place 3x200-free relay, and the fourth-place 200 freestyle relay.
GIRLS GOLF
Shelby Poss (Darlington, sr.) - is this week's golf selection for her medalist round of 42 with five pars over the nine holes on Monday. She parred 1, 3, 6, 8 and 9 at the Darlington Country Club to lead Darlington/Cuba City (202) over Southwestern (265) and Lancaster (inc). She also shot a 110 at last Friday's Prairie du Chien Invtie to help the Redbirds finish second at the five-team work.
