Star Valley’s Colton Cranney Takes Home Gatorade Wyoming Top XC Prize

Star Valley senior Colton Cranney was selected as the 2025-26 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Cross Country Player of the Year on Friday in a release from The Gatorade Company. Cranney earned the honor for the first time in his prep career. He became the fifth award winner from Star Valley High School, joining Jase Burton, Habtamu Wetzel, Peter Visser, and Shane Henderson in that distinction.

GATORADE WYOMING BOYS CROSS COUNTRY AWARD 2025-26

Cranney was the Class 4A state champion last fall and crossed the finish line at the state championships with an all-class best time of 15:59.8. He was the only runner under 16 minutes. Colton helped the Braves take second in the 4A team standings. The 6-3 senior was the fastest runner from the state at the Brooks XC West Regional, where he placed ninth and earned first-team all-region honors. At the Nike Northwest Regional, Cranney finished in 26th place. He added a 37th-place effort at the national Brooks XC Championships. He was unbeaten against in-state competition last fall, and among his highlights was a victory at The Mook Invite, where Colton recorded a personal-best 5k time of 14:50.2.

Rich Gonzales of PrepCalTrack praised the senior’s performance in the media release from Gatorade.

“Cranney ran a challenging race schedule and finished unbeaten against in-state runners. In seven meets from August through October, he earned four wins and didn’t finish lower than fourth. He was the class of Wyoming last fall.”

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Cranney Also Contributes Away From Competition

A member of his school’s chamber orchestra, Cranney has volunteered locally for a food bank and on behalf of the elderly, in addition to serving in multiple leadership roles within his church congregation’s youth group. The senior maintains a 3.99 GPA in the classroom. He will participate in an LDS church mission beginning this fall.

This is the 41st year The Gatorade Company has honored the nation’s best high school athletes. This award celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. It distinguishes Cranney as Wyoming’s best high school boys’ cross-country runner. He is now a finalist for Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. That will be announced later this month.

Cranney joins former Star Valley teammates Jase Burton (2024-25) and Habtamu Wetzel (2023-24), and Owen Burnett from Mountain View (2022-23), among the state’s list of former award winners.

As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $6.4 million across more than 2,200 organizations.

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