24-02-2025
Poll: Who should be the Miami Herald's High School Athlete of the Week? (Feb. 24)
South Florida's top athletes were recognized recently in the sports of basketball, cheerleading, soccer and wrestling.
This week, we continue a feature where we ask you to vote for the best performer of the week from baseball, basketball, cheerleading, soccer and weightlifting in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Take our poll below to cast your vote. The poll will be open until Thursday, Feb. 27, around 10 p.m. You may vote as often as you like until then.
Here are the candidates:
NOTE: You should see a Miami Herald box underneath this note for you to type Yes and click Submit. That will ignite the actual poll to vote.
▪ Mia Conard, Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons soccer: the junior scored the winner (the game's only goal) with 4:30 remaining as the Chiefs (13-5-2) edged Davie NSU University School 1-0 for the Region 4-3A title.
▪ Kaleb Corbitt, Pompano Beach Blanche Ely basketball: the junior scored a team-high 19 points, including a put-back basket off a rebound with 2:38 left to put the Tigers up 48-47 as Ely won the Region 4-5A title over defending state champ Pembroke Pines Charter 59-56. With 7.1 seconds left, he cooly drained two free throws to make it 59-54 and a few seconds later grabbed a key rebound on a purposely missed PPC free throw to end it.
▪ Jonas Duque, Miami St. Brendan basketball: the senior batted away a Northwestern pass, which was snagged by teammate Benny Fragela. He then retrieved the ball from Fragela and dribbled the length of the court to score what proved to be the winning basket as the visiting Sabres came-from-behind to upset top seed Miami Northwestern 70-69 to advance to a basketball region final for the first time in school history. Duque finished with a game-high 30 points including six 3-pointers.
▪ Angel Garcia, Miami True North baseball: the senior catcher caught a shutout (via three pitchers), drove in the winning run and threw out a runner trying to steal third to end the game on a strike-em out/throw-em-out double play as the visiting Titans upset nationally-ranked Parkland Stoneman Douglas 1-0.
▪ Naya Hardisson, Miami Southridge basketball: the sophomore scored a game-high 21 points, including five big points down the stretch as the Spartans (15-10) upset four-time defending state champ Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas 52-49 in a Region 4-6A semifinal.
▪ Amanda Kerry, Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons cheerleading: the senior and three-year letterwinner helped the Chiefs win their first national title at the UCA Championships in Large Varsity Non-Tumbling Division II at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Prior, they were second at the FHSSA state tournament in Class 1A Extra Large Non-Tumbling.
▪ Justice Lee, Marathon weightlifting: the junior won FHSAA state titles in Olympic and Traditional categories in Class 1A for the second consecutive season in Lakeland. She became the first dual state champion in Marathon High School history last season and repeated this season.
▪ Adaya Montalvo, Miami SLAM basketball: the senior scored 18 points to lift SLAM (15-12) over Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons 75-52 in a Region 4-3A semifinal.
▪ Haylee St. Hilaire, Miami Doctors Charter weightlifting: the senior won an FHSAA state title in Class 1A in the Olympic category. She helped the Hawks place second at state, a school first.
▪ Nicholas Pineros, Miami Gulliver Prep soccer: the senior scored the first goal and assisted on the second as the Raiders (19-2-2) won the Region 4-3A title with a 2-0 victory over Davie NSU University School.
