Pennsylvania standout named nation's top high school performer
EASTON, Pa., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In its third decade of honoring
the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in
partnership with RISE Magazine, today announced senior middle distance
runner Chanelle Price of Easton Area High School (Easton, Pa.) as its
2007-08 Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Price
becomes the first student-athlete from the state of Pennsylvania to win
Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year honors.
The award, which recognizes not only athletic excellence, but also high
standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on
and off the track, distinguishes Price as the nation's best high school
girls track & field athlete. A national advisory board comprised of
sportswriters and sport-specific experts from around the country helped
select Price from the more than 439,000 high school girls track & field
athletes nationwide. Price is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade
Female High School Athlete of the Year award, to be presented at a special
afternoon ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July.
No stranger to international competition, the senior half-miler placed
sixth in the 800-meter run against a world-class field at the Prefontaine
Classic earlier this month with a time of 2:01.61, clocking the second-best
time in scholastic history and eclipsing a milestone set by track legend
Mary Decker. Shattering the state record and winning her third consecutive
gold medal in the 800-meter with a time of 2:02.90 at the PIAA Class AAA
state meet in May, Price helped the Red Rovers to a seventh-place finish as
a team. A two-time 800-meter champion at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, Price
also won the 800-meter event at the 2008 National Scholastic Indoor
Championships and the 2007 Nike Indoor Nationals. Price is a five-time
individual national champion and has qualified for the upcoming 2008 U.S.
Olympic Trials.
Price has maintained a 99.28 average in the classroom, placing her in
the top five percent of her class. Easton Area's Homecoming and Prom Queen,
Price donates her time as a Special Olympics volunteer and as a local
Vacation Bible School counselor. A member of the Future Business Leaders of
America and the Key Club, she also participates in multiple
community-service initiatives as an inductee of the National Honor Society
and Spanish National Honor Society.
"Price has not lost a race at the prep level all year and keeps
improving," said Joy Kamani of the National Scholastic Sports Foundation,
prep track's most prestigious meet organizer. "A consistent performer all
season long, who competently runs distances from 400 to 5000 meters, she
set a new prep record in the 500 meters indoors this year. Earlier this
month, she competed against some of the world's best elite 800-meter
runners, including the great (2000 Sydney Games Olympic Champion) Maria
Mutola, and powered to a 6th-place finish and a new personal-best of
2:01.61, which puts her No. 2 on the all-time high school list behind (the
late, two-time Olympian) Kim Gallagher. She is in a class of her own."
Price has signed a National Letter of Intent to run at the University
of Tennessee this fall.
"Without question, Chanelle is deserving of recognition as the nation's
best high school girls track & field athlete based on her statistics on the
track and the tremendous ability she's demonstrated," said Gatorade Senior
Vice President of Sports Marketing Jeff Urban. "But she is also a shining
example to peers and aspiring young players of what a leader and a
student-athlete should be. She represents everything we hope for in a
Gatorade Player of the Year recipient."
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner
in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high
school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and
girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and
girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each
sport. The selection process is administered by RISE Magazine, which works
with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished,
veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each
sport.
Former notable Gatorade National Players of the Year include:
-- Reigning 200-meter world champion Allyson Felix
-- 2004 Athens Olympic Games 4-x-400-meter gold medalist Monique
Henderson
-- 2006 IAAF World Athlete of the Year and 400-meter American
record-holder Sanya Richards
-- Softball gold medalist Cat Osterman
-- WNBA all-time leading scorer and rebounder Lisa Leslie
-- NFL all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith
-- 2007 Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning
-- Beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh
For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including
nomination information and lists of past winners and future announcement
dates, visit http://www.gatorade.com/playeroftheyear.
ALL-TIME GATORADE NATIONAL GIRLS TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
HONOREES
Year Name High School Status
2007-08 Chanelle Price Easton Area/Easton, PA High School Senior
2006-07 Emily Pendleton Woodmore/Elmore, OH Univ. of Michigan
2005-06 Bianca Knight Ridgeland/Ridgeland, MS Univ. of Texas
2004-05 Brittany
Daniels Merrill F. West/Tracy, CA Univ. of Tennessee
2003-04 Shalonda
Solomon Long Beach Univ. of South
Poly/Englewood, CA Carolina
2002-03 Allyson Felix Los Angeles Baptist/North USA Track &
Hills, CA Field/adidas
2001-02 Sanya Richards St. Thomas Aquinas/Ft. USA Track & Field/Nike
Lauderdale, FL
2000-01 Ychlindria
Spears Luling/Luling, TX Univ. of Texas Grad.
1999-00 Monique Samuel FB Morse/San USA Track &
Henderson Diego, CA Field/Reebok
1998-99 Stacy Martin Edgewood/Ellettsville, IN Auburn Grad.
1997-98 Angela Williams Chino/Chino, CA USA Track & Field/Nike
1996-97 Kinshasa Davis Woodrow Wilson/Long USC Grad.
Beach, CA
1995-96 Kim Mortensen Thousand Oaks/Thousand UCLA Grad.
Oaks, CA
1994-95 Joanna Hayes J.W. North/Riverside, CA USA Track & Field/Nike
1993-94 Suzy Powell Thomas Downey/Modesto, CA USA Track &
Field/Asics
1992-93 Marion Jones Thousand Oaks/Thousand USA Track & Field/Nike
Oaks, CA
1991-92 Marion Jones Thousand Oaks/Thousand USA Track & Field/Nike
Oaks, CA
1990-91 Marion Jones Rio Mesa/Oxnard, CA USA Track & Field/Nike
1989-90 Melisa Weis Bakersfield/Bakersfield, Cal State-Bakersfield
CA Grad.
1988-89 Angela Burnham Rio Mesa/Oxnard, CA UCLA Grad.
1987-88 Chryste Gaines South Oak Cliff/Dallas, Stanford Grad.
TX
1986-87 Janeene Vickers Pomona/Pomona, CA UCLA Grad.
1985-86 Yolanda Johnson George Washington/Denver, Univ. of Colorado
CO Grad.
SOURCE Gatorade
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Related links:
http://www.gatorade.com/playeroftheyear
CONTACT:
Julie Mason, +1-412-496-3196, for Gatorade
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