Roark, Riley pick up athlete of the week honors
Dec. 24—Seneca's Brady Roark and Carthage's Madison Riley have been named The Joplin Globe's athletes of the week for their performances on the mat and in the pool, respectively, during the week of Dec. 12-17.
Brady Roark
Roark began the week by picking up his 150th career win on Dec. 13 in a home contest against Pittsburg, Kansas. The senior grappler hit that milestone with a pin against his opponent.
"He prepares pretty much the same way whether he's wrestling a state final or just for a dual," Seneca head coach Jeff Sill said. "I'm just very appreciative of the way he goes into preparing for each season. ... He just does a great job of going out there and competing and taking it one match at a time."
Seneca traveled to Coppell, Texas for the Santa Slam tournament and Roark went 5-0 record over the weekend. He went 3-0 in the tournament and also won both of his matches in the duals. All five of his wins were by fall.
Roark helped his team to a split on Friday during the duals as Seneca went on to defeat Keller Central (Texas) and fell to Rockwell (Texas). The two-time state champion topped Levi Abshear of Keller Central in 55 seconds. He also defeated Dylan Milster of Rockwell, this time in 2:43.
His 3-0 record on Saturday in tournament matches helped lead his team to a third-place finish. Roark received a first-round bye and then went on to beat Kris Salazar of Coppell in 3:38. In the semifinals, Xavier Royere of Houston Westside (Texas) fell victim to Roark in 1:57. Then, Roark and Milster would meet in the first-place match and the standout from Seneca would come out on top again. This time in 1:59 to take first place in the 132-pound class.
"He's one of those kids that you're blessed to be able to coach," Sill said. "He does things right on and off the mat. He's a 4.0 student. He's a two-time state champ, three-time finalist going into his senior year. He gets the extra workouts in and he's a great leader."
MADISON RILEY
Riley and the Tigers were in Springfield for a swim meet on Tuesday, Dec. 13 and they left the pool with multiple gold medals.
Out of eight teams competing, Carthage took first place and the senior leader sparked that top finish with four individual first-place finishes of her own.
Riley, as the flyer, led the team to a win in the medley relay with a time of 2:00.21. The medley is actually Riley's best event, according to head coach Braden McBride. She won the 200 and 500 free with times of 2:04.49 and 5:40.26.
"She swam the 200 free and the 500 free and just really dominated from start to finish," McBride said. "There was just no doubt that she was ahead of everybody physically that meet."
She also helped the team to a win in the 400 free relay, as well, with a time of 4:12.81.
The weekend before, Riley had set four school records while at the Winnetonka Invitational in Gladstone, Missouri. Those records came in the 200 free (1:56.22), 100 fly (58.13), 50 free (24.96) and 100 free (54.13). That effort helped the team to a fifth-place finish out of 26 schools. Riley won the 200 free and the 100 fly.
"She's committed to be just a year-round swimmer," McBride said. "She's been working really hard, putting in lots of yards.
"She's just a machine. ... What's really changed over the past couple years is her confidence has gotten a lot better and she's gotten a lot stronger physically and mentally."
