In its 32nd year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, announced Anna Gibson of Jackson Hole High School as its 2016-17 Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

Gibson is the first Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Jackson Hole High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes Gibson as Wyoming’s best high school girls track & field athlete.

Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Gibson joins an elite alumni association of state track & field award-winners, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).

The 5-foot-5 senior distance runner captured three individual state titles and shared in another this spring, leading the Broncs to a fourth-place finish at the Class 4A state meet. Gibson won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:11.49, the 1600 in 4:48.14 and broke the tape in the 3200 in 11:11.24 before anchoring the winning 4x800 relay quartet, which clocked a 9:48.18.

The state’s 2016-17 Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, her time of 4:43.06 in the mile-run at the Adidas Boost Boston Games ranked as the nation’s No. 6 performance among prep competitors in 2017 at the time of her selection.

The president of her school’s chapter of the National Honor Society, Gibson has served as a committee chairperson at the Teton County Model United Nations conference and has volunteered locally as a youth track and field coach.

“Anna Gibson is one of the most gifted competitors we have seen in Wyoming,” said Brent Jurgenson, head coach at Natrona County High. “While she was dominant in distance races, it is her speed that is most impressive. She dominated the competition this season.”

Gibson has maintained a 4.0 GPA in the classroom.

She will attend Brown University this fall where she will compete in track and field.

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 the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Gibson joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Lauren Taubert (2015-16, Natrona County High School), Ann Wingeleth (2014-15, Lyman High School), Jerayah Davis (2013-14, 2012-13 & 2011-12, Kelly Walsh High School), Paula Andrie (2010–11, Campbell County High School), Baillie Gibson (2009-10, Natrona County High School), Emily Moore (2008–09 & 2007-08, Campbell County High School), and Amber Henry (2006-07, Mountain View High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

As a Gatorade Player of the Year, Anna will be able to select a national or local youth sports organization to receive a grant as part of the Gatorade Play It Forward program.

Every Gatorade Player of the Year state winner receives a $1,000 grant to donate and will have the opportunity to enter for an additional $10,000 spotlight grant by writing a brief essay explaining why their selected organization deserves additional support. 12 spotlight grants–one for each sport–will be announced throughout the year.

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