Four from Hope College have claimed MIAA Athlete of the Week honors: senior Caden Brainard, senior Luke Wierengo and sophomore Gibson Heethuis from men’s lacrosse, and sophomore Madison Wei from women’s tennis.
Heethuis (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville HS) is the MIAA Men’s Lacrosse Offensive Athlete of the Week for the first time this season and the second time in his career.
An attacker, Heethuis collected a team-best eight goals and five assists combined during a 15-8 home victory vs. Albion College on Thursday and a 16-5 victory at Calvin University on Saturday. Heethuis also scooped up seven ground balls.
Wierengo (Northville, Michigan / Northville) is the MIAA Men’s Lacrosse Defensive Athlete of the Week for the third time this season and earned MIAA Athlete of the Week honors for the third time in his career.
A long-stick midfielder, Wierengo assisted on both ends of the field for the Flying Dutchmen last week, marking Albion’s and Calvin’s top midfielder and holding them scoreless. The business major also caused seven turnovers and grabbed four ground balls.
Brainard (Muskegon, Michigan / Reeths-Puffer) is the MIAA Men’s Lacrosse Specialist of the Week for the first time this season and the fourth time in his career.
A face-off get-off player, Brainard was critical to a 2-0 start to MIAA play, controlling possessions with 29 combined faceoffs and 24 ground balls last week. The mechanical engineering major also scored six seconds into the game against Albion at Van Andel Soccer Stadium
Wei (Parker, Colorado / Regis Jesuit) is the MIAA Women’s Tennis Athlete for the first time this season and the second time in her career.
The biomedical and bioelectrical engineering major went 3-0 at No. 4 singles at the Midwest Invitational last weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, and helped the Flying Dutch win two of three matches.
After a tight first set against nationally-ranked Gustavus Adolphus (Minnesota), Wei pulled out a 7-5, 6-2 win. Wei had another close match against North Central College (Illinois) with a first-set tiebreaker and won 7-6(3), 6-2. In the final match of the week, Wei earned a super-tiebreak victory (5-7, 6-1, 13-11) against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
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