March Nominees for March GTM Sportswear/NHSCA Athlete of the Month

by Jeff Fisher
Host, NHSCA Sports Hour

Voting is underway at NHSCA.com for the March GTM Sportswear/NHSCA Athlete of the Month.  

Click here to vote

Here are our six nominees...

#1 Jasmine Hines, a senior at Central Lake High School in Central Lake, Michigan.

Hines is Michigan’s all-time leading scorer in girls’ basketball.  She is also the state’s all-time leader in rebounds.  Her skills don’t stop there…she is also the defending champ in the shot put in track-and-field, plus a top player on the volleyball team.  She has a perfect 4.0 grad point average and will attend Michigan State University.

#2 Jesse Thielke, a senior at Germantown High School in Germantown, Wisconsin, is a four-time Division I state champ.  He’s ranked #1 in the nation in the 130 pound weight class by WIN Magazine.  Thielke finished his career with a record of 189-1.  He’s a University of Wisconsin recruit.

#3 Sophomore Kendall Williams of Kell High School in Marietta, Georgia is our next nominee.

Williams is one of the nation’s premier hurdlers.  She’s never lost an outdoor hurdles race in the past five years.  Last year, as a freshman, she won state titles in the 100 and 300 hurdles…setting records in both.  She was named Georgia’s Female Athlete of the Year by Gatorade.

#4 Missy Franklin, a sophomore at Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado.

Only a sophomore, Franklin is considered a lock for the 2012 Olympic swim team.  Franklin set a national record in the 100-yard backstroke at the Colorado 5A swimming and diving state championships.  Franklin also set a record in the 50-yard freestyle while leading her school to a state championship.

#5 Ryan Crouser, a senior at Barlow High School in Gresham, Oregon.

Crouser is a shot-putter, who’s headed to the University of Texas.  He broke a national record not once, but twice during the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho.  He broke the national record with a throw of 75 feet, 3-and-a-half inches.  Then he topped his own record with a toss of 77 feet, 2-and-three-quarter inches.

#6 Steve Congenie, a junior at Willowbrook High in Villa Park, Illinois

Congenie won the Class 3A wrestling title at 171-pounds.  Congenie, who won the 152-pound weight class in 2010, was faced with two other state champs in the 171-pound weight class this year.