MALE
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
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.”