Courtney Weibel sets girls national three-point record

	With a quick-release and deadly accuracy, Courtney Weibel set the national record for career three-pointers with her 458th last week. Photo courtesy of Kane Photography

Each week SI.com will select the athlete who displays excellence on and off the field as the Primetime Performer.

Courtney Weibel, 5-foot-9, Sr., Hononegah High (Rockton, Ill.)

A rapid-fire release, perfected over the last two years through rigorous repetition, enabled Courtney Weibel to become the greatest three-point shooter in the history of high school girls' basketball.

Last Tuesday, the Hononegah High (Rockton, Ill.) senior hit 7-of-10 shots from behind the arc during a 67-34 rout of Machesney Park to break the national record with 458 career threes. The national record of 455 by Nikki Tibbs of Butler (Huntsville, Ala.) had stood since 1999.

"It feels good to see all my hard work pay off," says Weibel, who sat out the fourth quarter.

The quickest trigger in the Midwest has sharpened her long-range accuracy by shooting 100 threes a day, usually in her last-hour gym class, a routine she began when she was in the third grade. Though highly efficient in her shooting, Weibel has proven capable of adapting to opponents' face guarding as well as defensive schemes designed to push her farther away from the basket.

"It helps our team a lot by opening other people up. But it is frustrating," says Weibel, who has signed with Marquette and carries a 4.03 GPA. "I've gotten used to it the last couple years."

Two days after her record night, Weibel was featured on ESPN. "A bunch of coaches called me and said they never had seen a kid get her shots off so quickly," says her AAU coach John Waring. "I put her on my AAU traveling team [Pacesetter Basketball] when she was 14. I thought she had so much potential that I put her on our 16-and-under team. There were things in her shot that had to be changed. I taught her the two-foot jump stop, or hop. That's when she really started getting her shot off quicker."

"He had me catch and make a two-foot jump stop," Weibel says. "I got my shot off a ton quicker. It allows you to drive either way, because you haven't established a pivot foot yet."

The 5-foot-9 guard has led Hononegah to a 23-4 record by averaging 14.6 points. Her season-high is 36 points -- on 12 threes. She is shooting 38 percent from three-point range and 93.3 percent from the free throw line.

Weibel is coached by her father, Randy, and -- along with twin brother Jacob and older sister Ashley -- began following her dad into the gym daily at a very young age. "I was tall [5-foot-9] in middle school," she says. "I thought I was going to be a post player. But I stopped growing after eighth grade. I liked to shoot, so it wasn't disappointing."