Star Valley’s Peter Visser Wins Gatorade Wyoming Cross Country Player of the Year Honor Again

Star Valley senior Peter Visser has been chosen as the 2020-2021 Gatorade Wyoming Boys Cross Country Player of the Year.

This is the fourth Gatorade Award for Visser and third consecutive in cross country.

Visser won his third straight Class 3A cross country state championship last fall with a time of 15:48.76. He broke the tape over 42 seconds ahead of the next closest runner. He led the Braves to a second-place finish as a team in Class 3A. Visser set a state record of 14:56.8 with a runner-up at the Hydrangea Ranch Time Trial in Tillamook, OR. He also placed seventh at the XC Town USA Meet of Champions.

Lander Valley head coach Kevin Green had a lot of praise for Visser in the release from The Gatorade Company.

“Peter Visser is simply in his own league. He stands above the rest.”

Visser maintains a 3.98 GPA in the classroom. He works at his family’s bicycle shop. Visser has volunteered locally for community beautification projects and donated his time to other community service endeavors through his church youth group according to the release from The Gatorade Company.

Visser has signed a National Letter of Intent to run cross country and track on scholarship at Weber State University this fall.

This is the 36th year The Gatorade Company is honoring the nation’s best high school athletes. This award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. It distinguishes Visser as Wyoming’s best high school boys cross country runner. He is now a finalist for Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. That will be announced later this month.

Among the state’s former winners, before Visser’s three-year run, are Albert Steiner from Laramie (2017-18) and Shane Henderson of Star Valley (2016-17).

As a part of receiving the honor from The Gatorade Company and its’ cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Visser has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choice. He is also eligible to submit a 30-second video explaining why the organization he chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.

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