Carthage swimmer Will Wright and Webb City middle hitter Jaeli Rutledge have been named as the Zimmer Marketing Male and Female Athletes of the Week for the week ending Sept. 28 brought to you by JL Mobile Truck and Trailer Repair and Elements Construction Concepts.
Wright, a junior, was instrumental in Carthage’s win at the Monett Invitational over the weekend. Wright won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 59.32 seconds, while tying for first in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:02.76. He was also a member of the first-place 200-yard freestyle relay team that won in a time of 1:37.91 and took second as part of the 200 medley relay.
“He is a very technically-sound swimmer,” Carthage coach Braden McBride told JoplinSportsHub.com. “He has devoted himself to swimming nearly year round. He has dedicated himself to becoming the best swimmer he can. Those kind of guys you always love having on your team. … He is a great breaststroker and he does a great job in scoring a lot of points for our team.”
The Carthage boys won the meet with 338.5 points.
Rutledge had quite the week for Webb City volleyball. After the Cardinals started the week with wins over Mount Vernon (3-1), Kickapoo (3-0) and Republic (3-0), Webb City won six more matches in the Dr. Jeffrey Knutzen CJ Classic Volleyball Tournament, including a 2-0 win over Carl Junction in the championship game. Rutledge was named the tournament MVP.
“Her size brings an intimidation factor right out of the gate,” Webb City coach Rhonda Lawrence said to JoplinSportsHub.com. “The fact that she is so much more mobile. She has really come along in the last year. She is a lot quicker and moving a lot better. She is just playing smart volleyball.”
Rutledge finished the week with an astounding 97 kills, 18 aces in service, 38 digs and 33 solo blocks on the defensive end.
Coaches can nominate athletes of the week candidates by emailing the student’s name, sport and stats for the previous week to sports@zrimarketing.com.