Athletes of the week: March 8-13

Here’s our list of seven area athletes who excelled last week. Send your nominee for future Athlete of the Week honors to Paul Kopsky at pkopsky@stltoday.com.

Paul Kopsky/STLhighschoolSPORTS.com | Chloe Nelson quarterbacked Incarnate Word to a state title.

Chloe Nelson
Incarnate Word basketball
A 5-foot-7 senior point guard, Nelson quarterbacked the Red Knights to a Class 5 state championship. Nelson’s contribution to the Red Knights went far beyond her stats of 9.5 points, 3.19 assists and 1.87 steals per game. An outstanding defender, she was given the responsibility of guarding the opposition’s point guard. Nelson, who was named to two all-tournament teams this season, is a first-team all-conference pick in the MWAA White. She signed with Illinois State.

Zach Ellis
Whitfield basketball
A 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, Ellis has stepped up his offensive game in the playoffs, leading the Warriors to a berth in the Class 3 semifinals against Cardinal Ritter Thursday in Columbia. Ellis, averaging 16.6 points this season, is averaging 22.6 points in five playoff games and has been the team’s leading scorer throughout the postseason. During the regular season, Ellis twice scored more than 30 points in a game.

Toraino Hellems
Oakville basketball
A 6-foot senior point guard, Hellems was the floor general who led the Tigers to a second-place finish in the Class 5 state tournament. In six playoff games Hellems averaged 17.2 points and 4.4 assists and was money from the foul line, hitting 21 of 24 attempts. A first-team all-conference selection in the Suburban West, Hellems averaged 15.1 points and a team-best 5.48 assists and 2.10 steals.

Scott Pohle
Parkway South basketball
A 6-foot-3 senior guard, Pohle finished with 1,031 career points, good for third on the school’s career scoring list. Pohle holds the school record for career 3-pointers made with 207. He finished second in games played with 96 and fourth in field goals attempted with 836. A four-year varsity player, Pohle appeared in only 15 games this season after breaking his foot during the preseason.

Nathan Scheer
Borgia basketball
A 6-foot-5 senior guard/forward, Scheer led the Knights to a second-place finish in the Class 4 state tournament. He was the Knights’ high scorer in both games at state, finishing with 28 in the semifinals against Soldan and 17 in the title game vs. Kearney. During the regular season, Scheer was named MVP of the Borgia tournament and earned all-tournament honors at Washington. The versatile Scheer averaged a team-high 21.4 points and led the team with 70 3-pointers, averaging 44.9 percent from beyond the arc. An all-state pick last season and likely again this season, Scheer has a scholarship with Missouri State University.

Brandon Thompson
Althoff bowling
A senior team captain, Thompson capped off an outstanding high school career by being unanimously named by coaches as the bowler of the year in the SIHSBC (Southern Illinois High School Bowling Conference). Thompson had the highest average in the conference the past two seasons — 224 as a junior, 221 this season. Thompson averaged 221 at the sectional tournament, which qualified him for the Illinois state tournament, where he finished 29th.

David Wiegmann
Breese Central basketball
A 6-foot-7 senior forward, Wiegmann finished the year in a big way, pouring in a game-high 32 points in the Class 2A third-place game against Hales Franciscan. For the season, Wiegmann averaged a team-high 18.8 points and contributed 5.4 rebounds. He was recently named first-team all-state by the IBCA and second-team all-state by the AP. Wiegmann also earned first-team all-conference honors and was named to all-tournament teams at Effingham St. Anthony, Mater Dei and Nashville.