All-PowerBar Team National Athletes of the Week

Football quarterback Jeff Skemp from Southwestern High of Hazel Green, Wis., and freshman distance running phenom Nicole Blood from Saratoga Springs High of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., have been named the latest All-PowerBar Team National High School Athletes of the Week.

Skemp (pictured left) is a 6-foot-9 junior who made it seem as if the air was thinner than normal in Wisconsin last Friday night. The promising quarterback completed a state-record 44 passes (in 70 attempts, which is second-most in state history) for a state-record 612 yards with five scores (48, 11, 44, 51 and 6 yards) and two interceptions in a 40-39 win over Riverdale of Muscoda.

Skemp declined credit for his great night. "I played well, but we ran a lot of short routes," he told Student Sports regional editor Jason Deegan. "I just got the ball to the wide receivers and they made the plays. The defense was blitzing us, so we kept our running back in as an extra blocker and the line gave me a lot of time." Skemp, who is the youngest of three brothers to play football and basketball at Southwestern (Greg and Michael are the others), says his height is an advantage, not a disadvantage, on the football field. "Coaches teach you to throw over the top," he said. "I throw three-quarters. Since I'm so tall, my delivery doesn't get knocked down."

Skemp wasn't the only Wisconsin thrower who went crazy that night, either. Robert Michalkiewicz of St. Marys Central (Menasha, Wis.), completed 25-of-40 for 495 yards with six touchdowns in a 49-26 win over Mishicot.

Blood (pictured left)held off Amber Harper of Orem (Utah) on a wet course to win the Great American Cross Country Festival Race of Champions. Blood covered the course in 19 minutes, 2.7 seconds. Harper was second in 19:03.1. Blood's performance helped Saratoga, ranked No. 1 in the nation, to win the Race of Champions for the third straight year. Last spring as an eighth-grader, Blood clocked 4:50.15 for the mile and 10:24.29 for two miles. Those kinds of marks have generated a lot of excitement in the track world over the prep records Blood could break in the next four years.

Last week, football running back Marcus Thomas from Tolleson High of Tolleson, Ariz., and volleyball player Cassie Wolpern from Belle Plaine High of Belle Plaine, Minn., were selected as the third pair of All-PowerBar Team National High School Athletes of the Week for the 2002-03 school year.

All athletes from any sport and any state in the nation are eligible to be a All-PowerBar Team Athlete of the Week. See below to find out who has been selected from each region of the country.

In addition to national publicity delivered on several platforms through Student Sports Inc., each All-PowerBar Team National Athlete of the Week will receive an award signifying the selection. All selections, both national and regional, are made by the Student Sports' national high school content team, headed by executive editor Mark Tennis and including national rankings editor Doug Huff and regional editors Sheldon Shealer and Jason Deegan.

PowerBar, the fuel of choice for top athletes around the world, is proud to recognize top high school athletes as part of the All PowerBar Team. PowerBar is the creator of the original energy bar and has been the leader in sports nutrition since 1986.

All-PowerBar Team Regional Athletes of the Week follow:

EAST


Girls: Randi-Lynn Bruso
Douglas High (Douglas, Mass.)
Bruso had three goals and two assists in the team's 7-0 win over North Brookfield (Mass.) last week, giving her 231 career points and a new state scoring record. The previous career record of 227 points was shared by Sutton's Emma Kurowski and Masconomet's Kendall Daly. Considering Bruso still had two-thirds of the regular-season remaining, plus playoffs, she stands to put some serious distance between herself and the former record holders. Points are tallied by creditting the player with two points for a goal, one for an assist. There is no national record in this category, but several states do consider points for state recognition.

Boys: Marquise Liverpool
Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) Football
The showdown between the No. 1 and 2 teams in New Jersey was a real war until Liverpool, only a junior, took over. Liverpool scored three touchdowns in a span of 4 minutes, 4 seconds as Don Bosco Prep uncorked a 34-point second half en route to a 47-16 victory. Liverpool scored on two pass receptions and an interception return. The two-way standout finished with three interceptions.

SOUTHEAST

Girls: Angie Pressey
Lake Mary High (Lake Mary, Fla.) Volleyball
A junior outside hitter, she dominated the prestigious Trinity Prep Invitational last weekend. In two days, she totaled 84 kills with 21 in the championship match in which the Rams defeated the host Saints 15-4,15-10. Pressey had 134 kills entering the tournament, the best in Central Florida, and she ranked fifth in digs with 49.

Boys: Kregg Lumpkin
Stephenson High (Stone Mountain, Ga.) Football
This highly-recruited running back, rated among the nation's elite by Student Sports, has helped boost the unbeaten Jaguars into state title contention and the No. 43 spot in the FAB 50 national rankings. Last week, he rushed 32 times for 252 yards and a touchdown, passed for a TD, and rushed for two conversions in a hard-fought 28-26 win over previously-unbeaten North Gwinnett.

MIDWEST

Girls: Shannon Bergstedt
Hopkins High (Minnetonka, Minn.) Cross Country
The junior strutted her stuff at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday at the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights. She won her second straight Griak, finishing in 18 minutes, 27.3 seconds over 5,000 meters, which is 1,000 meters longer than Minnesota prep girls normally run. Bergstedt, who holds the state record in the 3,200 meters (10:26.82) and has run the 1,600 in 4:51, a few seconds off the state record, also helped the Royals, the defending Class AA cross country champs, finish first in the race, which is also filled with college teams. In June, Bergstedt finished second to a college runner in the 1,500 and sixth in the 3,200 at the U.S. Junior Nationals track and field meet in Palo Alto, Calif. She's training hard to erase bad memories from past cross country state meets. She finished 12th and ninth, respectively, as an eighth and ninth-grader, but last year, the No. 1-ranked runner fell and did not finish.

Boys: Kam Kniss
Eastland-Pearl City High (Ill.) Football
Although his team came on out on the losing end of a 78-74 shootout with Freeport Aquin, you can't fault Kniss. He completed 22-of-41 passes for 419 yards and three touchdowns (51, 65 and 20 yards), while also rushing for five scores (1, 4, 7, 2 and 15 yards). Leading your team to 74 points would seem to be a sure-fire way to win. It was until now. Eastland-Pearl City set a national record for most points by a losing team, breaking the old record of 71, set by Indianola (Miss.) in a loss to Ruleville in 2000, according to the 2002 Student Sports National High School Record Book. The game also set a state record for most points in a non-shutout game.

SOUTHWEST



Girls: Dana Wertz
Southeast High (Lincoln, Neb.) Softball
Wertz, a second-team Student Sports All-American as a junior, pitched two shutouts as the Knights finished 3-0 at the 20-team Lincoln Southeast Softball Classic last weekend at Doris Bair Softball Complex. Wertz, who also plays first when she doesn't pitch, allowed just four hits, while striking out 18, in a 1-0 win over Blair and a 6-0 shutout of Norfolk. The Knights, ranked third in Class A with a 24-3 record, are trying to knock off seven-time defending state champion Papillion-LaVista this season.

Boys: Josh Frerichs
Lodgepole High (Lodgepole, Neb.) Football
Although some football purists might discount Frerichs' big game because it came in eight-man football, there's no debate about how good a game he had. It's just too bad for Lodgepole it came in a 75-70 loss to Minatare. Frerichs, a junior, rushed 42 times for 395 yards and scored a state-record 10 touchdowns. He also set a state-record by adding five two-point conversions for 70 total points.

WEST

Girls: Kris Smith
West Anchorage High (Anchorage, Alaska) Cross Country
It's only the first week of October, but already there's a state champion to choose for this honor. Smith, a senior, won her second straight Class 4A girls cross country state title last weekend with a dominating performance on the Michael Janecek Trails in Palmer. Smith ran virtually by herself and won in a time of 18:40.51. She won by 16 seconds over second-place finisher Dominque Colberg of Colony. Many of Alaska's fall sports teams start their seasons in late July and early August and finish in October so they can be done before the really cold weather hits.


Boys: Kyle Brady
Tooele High (Tooele, Utah) Football
This senior multi-sport standout set a state record last weekend in Utah by intercepting two passes in a game against Bear River and upping his career total to 22. Brady's 22 career interceptions surpassed the previous state best of 20 held by Orem's Rich Lamoreaux. He also rushed for 148 yards and three touchdowns as Tooele defeated Bear River, 35-6. Brady, a 6-1, 205-pounder, is a three-year starter at Tooele and also has starred in basketball and baseball. He carries a 3.5 GPA and is getting recruiting letters from Oregon, Stanford, BYU and a handful of other NCAA colleges.