Athlete of the week
Madelyn Ammirati, Freedom: The senior Patriot topped the field last week at the Central Hillsborough Championships in a personal record-setting time.
Ammirati won the girls race at Strawberry Crest in 19 minutes, 54.8 seconds, beating out second-place finisher Jade Walker of Armwood, who ran a 20:22.6.
It was Ammirati’s her first prep race ever breaking 20 minutes, bettering her previous career-best of 20:21 set last year at North Port.
It was also almost two minutes better than her season-opening time of 21:40 at the Cecil Field Summer Classic in Jacksonville the week before.
Ammirati is hoping to lead the Patriots to a third straight state championship meet appearance this season, which would extend the school record the team has set the past two seasons.
She was joined in the top 10 by her teammates, junior Sophia Douglas (fourth) and sophomore Tesla Novello, who was seventh.
Team of the week
If Ammirati’s individual title was good enough for Player of the Week, then let’s hand the Wharton boys the team of the week award, for winning the same meet.
The Wildcats rode four top 10 finishes — Derek Cook (second), Grady Toohey (seventh), Naveen Andrews (eighth) and Dylan Wimbley (ninth) to 30 points, tying Strawberry Crest. But the Wildcats had the smaller spread, just 59 seconds, between Cook’s time of 17:49.63 and the No. 5 scorer (Christian Wimbley’s 18:49.51) than Strawberry Crest’s 2:41 gap between its No. 1 and No. 5 finisher.
Still cooking
Wharton’s volleyball team won both its matches last week, beating Steinbrenner and Sickles to improve to 5-0, the program’s best start since the 2019 team started out 8-0.
And the win over Steinbrenner was significant. Back when Plant was the longtime thorn in Wharton’s side, Steinbrenner was the mini-thorn and had beaten Wharton four straight times dating to 2019 before last week’s Wildcat victory.
Against the Warriors, senior outside hitter Amia Kennerdy led the way with 19 kills on a 61.3 hitting percentage, with sophomore setter Zoe Ananga adding 44 assists and sophomore Layla Petschel chipping in 17 digs and four aces.
Patriots hit bump … twice
Freedom’s volleyball team dropped a pair of 3-1 matches to Bloomingdale and Newsome last week, falling to 2-2 on the season.
By the numbers
96 — Points scored by Wharton football through the first two weeks.
9 — Passing and rushing touchdowns for Wharton quarterback Ty Nesmith through two games.
44 — Assists by Zoe Ananga in a win over Steinbrenner, the most by a Wharton setter since Danielle Galfond had 49 in a playoff loss to Fort Meyers in 2023.
Check it out
Don’t want to spend your hot Friday night watching a high school football game? Well, then have we got a deal for you — Wharton hosts Sunlake in their Class 5A, District 7 opener on Thursday, Sept. 10. The Wildcats could be going for its first 4-0 start since 2021.
Have news? Milestones? Heroic performances? Contact John C. Cotey at jcotey@tampabeacon.com