Athletes of the Week – February 15

MALE

Cayden Rooks
Cayden Rooks

Cayden Rooks, Columbus East junior wrestler

Rooks won four matches Saturday to win his second consecutive Evansville Reitz Semistate title. In the 126-pound final, he avenged his only regular-season loss with a 3-1 decision against top-ranked Asa Garcia of Avon.

His performance last week: “I hit on everything that we worked on in practice. That’s what I wanted to do. It felt good.”

Do you do anything special to prepare? “I always try to keep a pattern of things so nothing gets out of whack.”

Favorite drink: “Gatorade”

Favorite food: “A cheeseburger”

Favorite book: “A Wrestling Life by Dan Gable”

Favorite class: “Math”

Role model: “My Grandpas (Lester Perkinson and Lester Perkinson Jr.)”

Best advice: “Before the finals, what helped calm me down, coach (Chris) Cooper told me that you’re just kind of putting on a show for people, so go have fun.”

Athletics goal: “To be a three-time state champion”

If you could travel anywhere: “I would like to go to Florida just because I like the beaches and stuff.”

FEMALE

sabotin, rachel
sabotin, rachel

Rachel Sabotin, Trinity Lutheran sophomore swimmer

Sabotin finished 10th in the state finals in the 200-yard freestyle in 1 minute, 52.08 seconds before coming back with a fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle in 4:57.83 to give the Cougars a 21st-place team finish.

Her performance last week: “I was pretty excited about getting fourth. Going in, I didn’t know how I was going to end up, but I was close to my best time.”

Do you do anything special to prepare? “I try to eat healthier the weak before. I try to focus in practice on little things I need to work on.”

Favorite drink: “Water”

Favorite food: “Pancakes”

Favorite book: “I like reading The Bible every day.”

Favorite class: “Spanish”

Role model: “My parents (Doug and Janice Sabotin) and my coach (Jennifer Brinegar).”

Best advice: “‘Whatever you do, don’t screw this up.’ My grandpa Frank used to say that.”

Athletics goal: “Hopefully to swim in college.”

If you could travel anywhere: “Iceland, just because it looks really pretty.”