In its 31st year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, announced Lauren Taubert of Natrona County High School as its 2015-16 Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

Taubert is the second Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Natrona County 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 Taubert 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, Taubert joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Allyson Felix (2001-02, Los Angeles Baptist, Calif.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.), Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.), Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt HS, Ia.) and Bianca Knight (2006-07, Ridgeland HS, Miss.).

The 5-foot-8 senior sprinter, hurdler, jumper and heptathlete captured three individual titles at the Class 4A state meet this spring, leading the the Fillies to state championship as a team.

Taubert won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.68 seconds, the 300-meter hurdles in 44.39 and the high jump with a clearance of five feet, four inches.

A First Team All-State selection, she also took bronze in the heptathlon at the Great Southwest Classic, scoring a total of 4,880 points.

Taubert has maintained a 3.97 GPA in the classroom.

She has volunteered locally on behalf of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an area food bank and in association with her church youth group.

“Taubert is hands down one of the best athletes I have seen in this state in a long time,” said Taylor Kelting, head coach at Sheridan High. “She is a tremendous leader and works extremely hard. She is only getting better and better.”

Taubert has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete on an athletic scholarship at Kansas State University this fall.

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 high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, 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.

Taubert joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year 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 Scool), and Amber Henry (2006-07 & 2005-06, Mountain View High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

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