Dylan Schaefer of Fort Mill baseball is The Herald’s Athlete of the Week

Dylan Schaefer of the Fort Mill baseball team is The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

The Yellow Jacket junior went 1-for-3 with a double to help Fort Mill to a 5-4 win over Lewisville in eight innings on April 4. Schaefer also went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and three runs scored in a 8-3 victory at Northwestern on April 6.

Schaefer earned 53% of the vote, while Madison Griffin of York track earned 28% of the vote.

Meet the other finalists below.

Statistics and records below are up-to-date through Monday, when this story first ran online.

Meet the nominees

Mason Alexander, Great Falls golf. The seventh-grader shot a team-low 54 to help the Great Falls golf team to a season-best team score of 242 in a quad meet with Chester, Lewisville and Richard Winn at Chester Golf Club on April 4.

Zan Dunham, Chester track. The Cyclone senior threw a 43-9 to win the shot put at York on April 7. Dunham also threw a personal-best 105-8 to win second in the discus and 101-4 to finish third in the javelin at the same meet. Dunham is also a South Carolina State football signee and played quarterback and linebacker for the Chester football team the past four years.

Gavin Eagan, Clover soccer. The Blue Eagle junior forward scored the go-ahead goal to help Clover to a 2-0 win over Nation Ford on April 6. And the goal was a spectacular one: In the first half, Eagan took a control touch with his right and then, from 25 yards out, bent a shot over the Fort Mill defense and past the Fort Mill goalkeeper into the upper-right corner of the net. Clover (15-4) also won at Fort Mill, 3-0, April 8.

Madison Griffin, York track. The Cougar senior won the 100-meter dash (13.07), the 200-meter dash (26.93) and helped the 4x100-meter relay team to victory in a quad meet with Chester, Shelby and South Pointe on April 7. Griffin also finished 13th in the 100-meter dash at the All-American Track Classic at Spring Valley on April 9.

Jada Jones, Rock Hill track. The Bearcat senior ran the state’s best 400-meter dash this outdoor season (56.40) to win the event at the All-American Track Classic at Spring Valley on April 9. Jones also ran a 24.93 to finish seventh in the 200-meter dash at the same meet. Jones is a Dartmouth College track signee.

Xander Love, Clover track. The Blue Eagle senior won the 800-meter run in a personal-best 2:09.80 at Fort Mill on April 6. He also ran a personal-best 4:45.20 to finish sixth in the 1600-meter run on the same day.

Ben Mills, Nation Ford golf. The junior Falcon shot a three-under par (33) at Tega Cay Golf Club to help Nation Ford to a close team win over rival Fort Mill on April 7. Mills had four birdies, four pars and a bogey in his round. Mills is averaging a 36.0 per nine holes — and a 76.0 per 18 holes — for Nation Ford this season.

Sam Rich, Catawba Ridge track. The Notre Dame University commit ran a personal-best 8:55.78 to finish 15th in the 3200-meter run at the Arcadia Invitational in California on April 9. Rich’s time was also the No. 1 time run in the state this outdoor season.

Johntavis Ross, South Pointe track. The Stallion senior won the 100-meter dash (11.61), the 200-meter dash (22.91) and the 400-meter dash (in personal-best, 51.93) in a home meet on April 4. Ross also finished seventh at the All-American Track Classic at Spring Valley on April 9 — running a 57.88 in the 400-meter hurdles.

Dylan Schaefer, Fort Mill baseball.

See full results here

If you can’t view the poll on your mobile device, click here to refresh the page.

How to nominate

Athlete of the Week awards highlight high school players with outstanding performances. The goal is to recognize all athletes — both the accomplished and the underrated/underappreciated players. If you want to suggest someone to be included in the ballot in future weeks, send an email to Jay Edwards at edwardswork23@gmail.com. Please include the athlete’s name, school, class and applicable game performance statistics. Coaches must be willing to verify information. The Herald reserves the right to remove a name from the poll at its discretion.

This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 2:34 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.