Campbell County’s Lauryn Love Earns Gatorade Girls Track Player of the Year Honor

Campbell County’s Lauryn Love has been named the Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track and Field Player of the Year for 2020-21.

In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best athletes, The Gatorade Company announced this year’s winner on Friday. Love is the fourth winner of this award from Campbell County High School. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to throw at the University of Arizona this fall.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Love as Wyoming’s best high school girls track & field athlete. She is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced later in July.

Love swept the shot put and discus events at the Class 4A outdoor state track meet in May. She led the Camels to a second-place finish as a team. At the time of her selection, Love had a personal-best throw of 47-6.25 in the shot put, which ranked No. 22 in the country among 2021 prep competitors. Her toss of 144-3 in the discus ranked No. 77 nationally.

The 5-11 senior was one of the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s 16 Multi-Sport Athletes of the Year in 2021.

She also won the shot put at the 2021 state indoor track championships in March with a toss of 45-6.25. Love won by nearly seven feet over the second-place competitor. Her efforts helped Campbell County win the girls’ team title at the indoor state track meet.

Love maintained a 4.09 GPA in the classroom and graduated as her school’s valedictorian. She was the treasurer of the National Honor Society at CCHS. Love volunteered locally with the Campbell County Parade of Homes during the Christmas season and at the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce’s annual crawfish boil.

Jenifer Lijewski, head coach of Kelly Walsh High, was very impressed with Love’s performances.

“Lauryn is a disciplined athlete who continually got better throughout the season. Her drive to be the best was evident in her progression throughout the year. I have been coaching for the past 20 years and it is rare to see an athlete that is so strong in two events.”

Love joins recent Gatorade Wyoming Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Sydney Thorvaldson from Rawlins (2019-20 & 2018-19), Aubrey Frentheway of Cheyenne Central (2017-18), and Anna Gibson from Jackson (2016-17), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Love is the first winner from Campbell County since Paula Andrie received the award for 2010-11.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Love has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Love is also eligible to submit a 30-second video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants has totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.

Information from a release by The Gatorade Company was used in this story.