It’s Week 4 of the CatchMark SportsNet West Michigan Conference Player of the Week fan poll for 2023 spring sports.
Six spring sports athletes from the conference who stood out in competitions April 24-29 have been nominated.
Time to get voting.
The poll can be found at the bottom of this story after brief capsules on the nominees. The poll closes at noon Friday, May 5.
Athletes are listed alphabetically:
CLAYTON ACKLEY, Hart track and field
The Pirates senior broke a school record in the 1600-meter run (or, the mile, as it used to be called) and also established a meet record with a 4:24.24 in Friday’s 8th annual Kent City Elite Invitational. Ackley’s time eclipsed the record held by Gary Brimmer from the 1980s (4:26.9). Ackley also set a Kent City Elite Invite record in winning the 3200 with a time of 9:47.01.
BRYTON BELINGER, Montague baseball
The Wildcats sophomore did the job at the plate and earned the pitching win in his team’s eye-opening 19-7 victory over North Muskegon in a WMC nondivisional split last Thursday. Belinger went 2-for-3 at the plate a double and four RBIs. He picked up the pitching win, allowing four runs (none earned) on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks in five innings of relief work.
NATE BOLLEY, Whitehall track and field
The Vikings senior set a meet record at the 8th annual Kent City Elite Invitational on Friday, winning long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 0.75 inches. Bolley also was a member of Whitehall’s school-record 4×100-meter relay team in winning the event at the Kent City Elite meet with a time of 43.34 seconds. Then on Saturday, Bolley was a member of the 4×200 relay team that broke its own school record with a time of 1:29.61.
ABBIE FOWLER, Holton softball
The Red Devils junior stamped her name in the MHSAA record book with a 10-RBI performance in her team’s 22-3 victory over Grand Rapids Covenant Christian in Game 2 of a doubleheader last Wednesday. In the game, Fowler homered twice, doubled, finished 4-for-6 and scored four runs. Holton hit four home runs in the contest.
ABBY HICKS, Hart softball
The Pirates junior enjoyed a big week at the plate and in the field as her team went 3-1 against Shelby and Montague. Hicks finished 9-of-13 at the plate with five doubles, a home run, 10 RBIs and 11 runs scored, plus three walks. Her on-base percentage was .750 and OPS was 2.058. Defensively, Hicks was part of three double plays from her shortstop and catcher positions.
ALEX JOHNSON, North Muskegon soccer
The freshman midfielder came up big for the Norse in a pair of wins last week. In Wednesday’s 8-0 victory over host Whitehall, Johnson tallied a goal and an assist. In Friday’s 1-0 home win over Montague, she notched the lone goal of the game on a shot through traffic just outside the 18-yard box.
