Find out who won Daily Leader Athlete of the Week poll for Aug. 26-31

The 2024-25 prep sports season has taken off quickly with golf, volleyball, football and other sports getting started. With the beginning of the sports season comes the return of the Pontiac Daily Leader Athlete of the Week.

Congratulations are extended to Emma Bennett of Lexington, who was voted as the school year’s first Pontiac Daily Leader Athlete of the Week, which covered Aug. 26-31.

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The quarterback of the Lexington volleyball team, Bennett collected 54 assists in guiding LHS to a 6-0 start, including winning the tournament title at Ottawa. Bennett’s defense has been stellar, as well, with 35 defensive digs.

Collins brought in 415 votes, which was 30.2 percent of the overall total on the Athlete of the Week poll this week. The next three places were separated by just 17 votes. Miranda Hari of Prairie Central was second with 209 votes (15.21 percent), while Owen Bergquist of El Paso-Gridley placed third with 199 (14.48 percent) votes and Prairie Central’s Dalton Steidinger was fourth with 192 votes (13.97). There were 1,374 votes cast.

Also nominated were Avery Poppe of Lexington, Kyah Creek of Prairie Central and Pontiac’s Aiden Alcorn.

Each week we nominate a group of stars and you get to go and vote in our poll. The voting at pontiacdailyleader.com ends at noon each Friday. You can email Erich Murphy at emurphy@gannett.com by 9 a.m. each Monday to submit a potential nominee who may be placed on the ballot.

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Find out who won Daily Leader Athlete of the Week poll for Aug. 26-31