Athlete of the Week Logo

Here are the candidates for The Bulletin’s Athletes of the Week for Jan. 1-6 as nominated by local coaches and The Bulletin sports staff.

Please read through the nominees and cast your vote for one male athlete and one female athlete at bendbulletin.com/sports.

Who won last week?

Who won last week?

Nearly 700 readers cast votes for The Bulletin’s Athlete of the Week (Dec. 18-31)

Voting will conclude at 3 p.m. Friday. The winners will be announced in Sunday’s sports section and online at bendbulletin.com.

Girl nominees

Sasha Esquiro, Madras basketball: In wins over Baker (Jan. 5) and La Grande (Jan. 6), Esquiro had back-to-back double-digit scoring games. She scored 14 points in the 60-41 win over Baker then had 19 points in the 68-55 win over La Grande.

Rylan Davis, Madras basketball: Like Esquiro, Davis also had a 14-point game in the Friday win over Baker then followed up with a 19-point outing against La Grande to help the White Buffaloes pick up two impressive nonleague wins.

MaKenna Duran, Crook County wrestling: At the Rollie Lane Invitational in Nampa, Idaho on Jan. 5-6, Duran not only won all six of her matches, but won all six of them by a pin. Her longest match lasted 10 seconds into the second round.

Lilly Price, Bend High basketball: In the Lava Bears’ 51-50 loss to Caldera to open Intermountain Conference play on Jan. 5, the senior guard finished with 18 points, three assists, two steals and four rebounds.

Boy nominees

Emil Bowadt, Mountain View swimming: The senior captain posted a personal best in the 100 freestyle at the White Buffalo Classic in Madras on Jan. 6. Bowadt’s time of 1 minute, 3.79 seconds was a 10-second improvement of his previous best time.

William Jenson, Caldera basketball: Jenson scored 20 points on an efficient 80% shooting from the field and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the Wolfpacks’ 68-40 win over Bend High on Jan. 5. The junior transfer also hauled in four rebounds and had two blocks.

Aiden Cruz, Caldera basketball: The junior wing broke Caldera’s single-game record for assists in a game when he dished out 10 of them in a 68-40 win over Bend High on Jan. 5.

Kale Gardner, Sisters basketball: In two games last week, Gardner had 14-point outings against Pleasant Hill on Jan. 3 and against La Pine on Jan. 6, while shooting 64% from the field. The junior also had four steals and four assists in the 59-50 loss to Pleasant Hill, then had four assists and three rebounds in the 65-55 win over La Pine.