Vote for this week's Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Week
GAYLORD — The Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Week Award is officially back for the winter sports season.
Each week, four athletes from Gaylord, St. Mary and Johannesburg-Lewiston will be eligible to win, and it will be up to you to decide who takes home the crown each week.
Polls will go live on petoskeynews.com/sports on Sunday afternoons and will close on Mondays at 11:59 p.m. (This week's poll will end at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.)
Coaches, to have your athletes considered, please submit stats by email to djespersen@gannett.com by Sunday mornings.
Avery Parker, Gaylord girls basketball
A tumultuous past couple of weeks for the Gaylord girls basketball team has left them trying to find a new identity for themselves entering the final month of the regular season.
That is because one of their stars and senior leaders, Meghan Keen, went down with an ankle injury about two weeks ago, taking one of their best players out of rotation fo the foreseeable future.
Losing a player who provides so much on and off the court has been tough for the GHS girls, but it has allowed other players to step up into the spotlight as well. On Friday, the player in the spotlight was Avery Parker.
The junior guard has been one of the more reliable players for the Blue Devils all year, but her play was on another level on Friday night despite the loss to Petoskey. She started the night absolutely on fire from 3-point range, finishing the first half with 20 points and five made 3-pointers.
She finished with a game-high 27 points in the hard-fought loss.
Her improved play will be critical to the Blue Devils' success down the stretch as they adjust to life without one of their best post players.
Macey Bebble, St. Mary's girls basketball
The story for the St. Mary's girls basketball team has been one of consistency and dominance, currently sporting a 13-game winning streak, an undefeated conference record and have not allowed a team within single-digits of their final score since December.
On a team as dominant as the Lady Snowbirds, it can be hard to stick out sometimes, but senior Macey Bebble hasn't had much trouble doing that.
Bebble earns yet another POTW nomination for her performances in blowout wins against Bellaire and Lake Leelanau St. Mary's, putting up a near triple-double against Bellaire with 19 points, 12 steals, nine rebounds and five assists while finishing with a double-double against LLSM as well with 18 points and 10 assists.
Jayden Marlatt, Johannesburg-Lewiston basketball
JoBurg split it's games this week, blowing out a young Pellston squad before falling in a heartbreaker to Onaway, but it was another successful individual week for the Cardinals' dynamic duo, Jocelyn Tobias and Jayden Marlatt.
With Tobias already winning a POTW award this season, Marlatt gets the nomination nod this week for her performances. She finished with 14 points and four rebounds in the 59-3 win over Pellston while putting up 13 points, six rebounds and four steals in the loss to Onaway.
Brayden Gautreau, Gaylord wrestling
Another weekend meet, another dominant result for the Gaylord wrestling team.
This weekend, the wrestlers continued their long tradition of Big North Conference dominance, rolling to their 16th consecutive BNC title after multiple championship performances.
While it's hard to pick just one standout, the nod will go to senior Brayden Gautreau this week after he cruised to victory in the 175-pound weight class.
In the semifinal match, he defeated Cadillac's Dylan Trowbridge in just 34 seconds to advance to the finals, where he pinned Petoskey's Connor Grebe in just 39 seconds for a quick victory and 1st place finish.
Gautreau was one of four Gaylor wrestlers to top their weight classes, along with Ty Bensinger, Carter Sides and Jaron Bensinger.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Vote for this week's Gaylord Herald Times Player of the Week
