To be the winning team, fan votes play a heavy role, along with consideration from our sports team here at LINK.
Nominations are reader-submitted or recommended by our sports team. Our Team of the Week program honors all local sports at all levels, whether it’s youth or adult-oriented recreation, high school or college, professional or amateur.
The new school year has added to the awards program. OrthoCincy Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine and LINK nky are excited to expand in addition to the weekly winners, the program will be including three winners for Team of the Season and one overall winner for Team of the Year for the 2024-25 sports seasons.
New this year for the program is the addition of the Team of the Season (TOTS) and Team of the Year (TOTY) awards. Sports seasons are considered fall, winter and spring for the purpose of this awards program. At the conclusion of each sports season, an overall TOTS winner will be chosen from all previous TOTW winners for that season. Their school will also receive a $500 scholarship to be presented to the athlete of their choice at the end of the school year.
Finally, the program culminates by selecting one TOTY from the three TOTS award winners. Online and print articles will again be published, a large commemorative plaque will be presented and the school will receive an additional $500 scholarship to be presented to the athlete of their choice at the end of the school year.
The call for nominations, voting and winning announcement for each will follow the same format as the TOTW.
This week’s nominated teams are listed below with some information provided by the submitter or LINK nky staff. The poll where you can vote follows at the end of the article.
Voting is open until Friday at 11:59 a.m.
Vote at the poll at the bottom of the article.
RYLE BOYS WRESTLING
Ryle claimed the Region 5 wrestling title on Saturday at Campbell County. The Raiders put eight wrestlers in Saturday’s championship finals and topped the team standings with 247.5 points.
It’s the Raiders’ fifth consecutive crown in Regions 5 and 6.
Landon Evans, Rider Trumble and Travis Steiber captured weight-class championships on Saturday in repeat performances, two at different weights.
Also taking home individual regional crowns for Ryle are freshman twins Bryant Brinkman and Aiden Brinkman. The other Raiders champs are junior Callen Schmidt and sophomore Keigan Reisenbeck.
That means half of Saturday’s list of 14 weight class champions come from one school – Ryle.
Bryant Brinkman (38-4) won Saturday’s 106-pound championship. Aiden Brinkman (32-17) won the 113-pound title.
Evans won the 138-pound crown and remained unbeaten at 32-0.
Trumble (45-2) won at 157 pounds Saturday after taking last year’s 150-pound title. Schmidt (36-5) prevailed at 165 pounds. Reisenbeck (37-11) took the crown at 175. Steiber (23-4) repeated at 190 pounds and won his final match by pin.
Other Ryle wrestlers qualifying for state include Luke Cornwell at 126 pounds, Jagger Irvin at 132 and Noah Crisp at 144. Cornwell, No. 2 statewide at his weight, is the regional runner-up in his class after winning last year at 106 pounds. Irvin finished third in his weight class on Saturday.
HIGHLANDS SWIM AND DIVE
The Highlands boys and girls swim and dive team finished runner-up for the combined state title.
The boys swim and dive team finished fifth while the girls placed fifth as well, giving them a combined team score of 243, only behind Ryle’s 305.5 points.
Among those placing in the championship final heats for the girls were Sarah Jones in fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, the girls 200-yard freestyle team of Ragan Moore, Ella Kate Reynolds, Keira Kobida and Sarah Jones in third and the girls 400-yard freestyle team of Moore, Reynolds, Kobida and Jones in third.
For the boys in the championship heats and those placing were the 200-yard medley relay team of Luke Deegan, Griffin Barlow, Noah Gracey and Chanith Abeysinghe in third, Abeysinghe in eighth in the 100-yard freestyle, Barlow in fifth in the 500-yard freestyle and second in the 100-yard breaststroke.
HOLY CROSS BOYS BASKETBALL
The Indians went 2-0 in the final week of the regular season to improve their record to 16-10.
They’ve been a bit shorthanded recently with injuries to William McElheney, Nate Rominger and Luke Arlinghaus. McElheney and Arlinghaus have returned while others have stepped up in their absence.
They closed the regular season out with three straight victories as Gavin Goetz, Aiden Urlage, Amir Henderson and Max Hunt had to increase their roles due to the injuries.
They’ve weathered the storm as they head into the 35th District semifinals against Beechwood on Wednesday looking for their first 9th Region tournament berth since 2022.
NEWPORT GIRLS BASKETBALL
The Lady Wildcats won three of their final four games in the regular season to get to 5-7 on the year.
They defeated Holmes, St. Patrick and Williamstown. Amariana Cook was the team’s leading scorer this season with 18.2 points per game. Brooklyn Hunt put up 6.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Janihyla Glenn (6.9) and Liniya Belford (6.3) also averaged over six rebounds per game.
Newport closed its season out on Monday with a loss to Dayton in the 36th District tournament quarterfinals.
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