Vote in the poll for Peoria Journal Star athlete of the week: State history, football and more

After plenty of solid fall sports performers over the last week, here are the Journal Star high school athlete of the week nominees for Oct. 16-21.

Head to www.pjstar.com/sports to vote. The poll closes at noon Friday. Information about the nominees is below.

If you have a nominee for the honor, email us at sports@pjstar.com or tag us on Twitter @pjstarsports. Last week, Avery Bedwell of the Metamora volleyball team was named JS athlete of the week.

Bryce Ratcliff, Illinois Valley Central football

Ratcliff accounted for seven touchdowns in IVC's first win the season. He threw for 302 yards and four scores, finding Sam Griggs, Brady Ward, Zac Case and Ian Gillespie in a 60-26 win over Rantoul. The senior quarterback also rushed for 132 yards and three TDs on 17 rushes, picking up 7.8 yards per carry.

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Kainon McQueary, Washington football

McQueary put together a big-time performance in the Mid-Illini Conference title game. The senior running back rushed for 234 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-21 victory over Morton. He averaged 13.8 points per carry, scoring TDs from 29, 53, 18 and 11 yards out. Washington (8-1, 7-0) won the league championship.

Callie Schumacher, Eureka volleyball

The senior was a catalyst in leading Eureka to the title match of the Heart of Illinois Conference title match. Her six digs came in a two-set loss to Downs Tri-Valley in Saturday's championship. She posted a team-high 10 kills in a 25-21, 25-20 semifinal victory over El Paso-Gridley on Thursday. Schumacher's week began with 11 kills and six digs to beat Deer Creek-Mackinaw, 25-16, 27-26.

Ryan Schwarz, Metamora volleyball

Schwarz anchored the back row with 26 digs as Metamora wrapped up the Mid-Illini Conference title last Thursday. In a match played at Bradley's Renaissance Coliseum, Metamora dropped the opening set to Dunlap, 25-23, before coming back for a 25-17, 25-14 win. Esma Frieden had 12 kills and two aces, while setter Avery Bedwell dished out 29 assists. The Redbirds (29-5) open Class 3A regional play on Tuesday.

Devon Hayes, Pekin boys cross country

Hayes qualified for the Class 3A sectional with a fourth-place regional finish last Saturday. The junior clocked a time of 15:38.36 at the 3A Plainfield Central Regional on the Plainfield Central HS course. He will run at Wilson Park at the Granite City Sectional on Saturday.

Alyssa Higgins, Knoxville girls cross country

Higgins won her first career race to take the Class 1A Peoria Notre Dame Regional individual title on Saturday. She ran 20:01.3 at The Yeti CC Course at Donovan Park, outdistancing her teammate and runner-up Emily King (20:09.30) by 8.6 seconds. The Blue Bullets took second to Eureka in the team standings, 59-69.

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Quinton Hynek, Peoria Christian boys soccer

Hynek became the all-time assist leader in the PCS program history. He recorded three assists in last Wednesday's 3-0 regional title win in a Class 1A regional championship match at EastSide Centre. The junior midfielder found Jameson Fisher, Trae Brickner and Caden Schmidgall. Hynek also found Brickner for a goal in Saturday's 4-0 semifinal win over Rock Island Alleman at the Chillicothe Sectional. PCS (21-4-2) has outscored its three postseason opponents, 16-0 heading into Wednesday's 6 p.m. sectional title match with Quincy Notre Dame.

Katie Unger, Dunlap girls swimming and diving

Unger set a school record at the Mid-Illini Conference meet on Saturday. Her dive of 414.55 is the program's new mark set at Pekin. She led a trio of divers — Annie Yingling (third) and Naina Reddy (fourth) — that finished in three of the top four spots at the league invitational. The Eagles (313) finished second to winner Washington (437) in the team standings.

Sophie Muir and Alassea Michel, Dunlap girls tennis

The doubles partners made history on Saturday, finishing third at the Illinois High School Association Class 1A state finals. Muir and Michel won the third-place match, 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 over Chicago University's Tara Sawhney and Isabela Ji. This was the highest individual finish in the program history, helping lead Dunlap to a third-place team finish.

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Vote in poll for Peoria Journal Star high school athlete of the week