Time to vote: Who should be the Rockford area's Athlete of the Week for Feb. 19-24?
It's time for you, the reader and diehard Rockford-area sports fan, to decide who you think deserves to be the Rockford Register Star Athlete of the Week for the week of Feb. 19-24 by voting in our poll.
Just about every week we nominate a group of high school stars and you get to go and vote in our poll. The voting at rrstar.com ends at noon on Friday. You can email Jay Taft at jtaft@rrstar.com by 9 a.m. each Monday to submit a potential nominee who can be placed on the ballot.
Rockford-area sports: NIC-10 state swimming and diving medalist already working on getting better, chasing title
Adam Brown, Belvidere North basketball
Brown scored 33 points and sparked Belvidere North to a 69-54 win over Sycamore to post the Blue Thunder's 21st win of the season and to claim a regional title last Friday. North now takes on Maple Park Kaneland on Wednesday in the Kaneland Sectional.
Angelina Cassioppi, Hononegah wrestling
Cassioppi won her third straight IHSA girls state wrestling title on Saturday, and as a junior, she's one of the few in the entire state who will be tracking down her fourth next year.
Christian Cummings, Rockford Christian basketball
Cummings scored 27 points to help lift Rockford Christian past Lutheran 75-55 in last Friday's Class 2A Winnebago Regional finale. Now Cummings and the Royal Lions play in the Mendota Sectional, starting Tuesday.
Rockford-area stars shine: Trio of Rockford-area girls come away with another state championship in wrestling
Cadence Diduch, Freeport wrestling
Diduch also won her third straight IHSA state girls wrestling championship in Bloomington on Saturday, and she won her fourth state title in a row, if you count the IWCOA crown she won as a freshman. The IHSA did not have a state series and a state tournament until three years ago. Diduch will wrestle for the Iowa Hawkeyes girls team starting next year.
Cooper Hoffman, Pecatonica basketball
Hoffman scored 22 points to lead Pec to its 30th win on the season, a 73-54 rout of Galena for a Class 1A regional title. Hoffman and Pec now take on Fulton on Wednesday in the River Ridge Sectional.
Cason Newton, Byron basketball
This sophomore guard drained five 3s and scored 17 points to help Byron double up Johnsburg, 62-31, in last Friday's regional-final matchup. Now Newton and the Tigers play in the Wednesday semifinal of the Mendota Sectional, and the winners will return to Mendota for the 7 p.m. Friday title showdown.
Tristan Peterson, Freeport diver
Peterson finished seventh in the state in diving over the weekend, scoring 465.45 points on 10 dives Friday and Saturday to become Freeport’s fourth state diving medalist.
Darian Tholin, Hononegah basketball
Tholin, a senior guard, scored a game-high 18 points to lead Hononegah in its upset of No. 1-seed Guilford 64-57 in the Class 4A East Regional championship game.
Netavia Wickson, Boylan wrestling
Wickson won her second girls state wrestling title in a row after placing second as a sophomore, the first year they held an IHSA girls state wrestling tourney. Wickson is undecided on her future, but she plans on wrestling in college.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Vote now: Rockford area's Athlete of the Week for Feb. 19-24
