Taylor ewert becomes Gatorade female track athlete of the year

Leo no question

hardly working wrote:

Leo no question

I don't know, and I don't have a horse in the race, but Nico's 3000 and 5000 times stack up pretty good historically.

katelyn tuohy goes home devastated

There is a long list of girls who deserve it before Tuohy this year. I'm not even sure she deserved the NY award - she had a team mate who did well in the jumps and hurdles this year.

devastated rip wrote:

katelyn tuohy goes home devastated

Kinda. Tuohy didn't have to turn her head and look behind once in 2-3 years of racing. But then Ewert came out of nowhere, severely threatening her and almost managed to cause a huge upset at NXN finals. College scene will be interesting with so many talented freshman girls starting this fall.

And yea, lots of runners deserve the reward, sadly there is only one being handed out.

Actually she goes home the only three time NXN winner in history.

There wasn't much of a track season this year.

I don't have much knowledge or an opinion on things like this, but how does the champion lose the top award to the second place finisher? Or is this based on Ewert's racewalking as well?

observer II wrote:

I don't have much knowledge or an opinion on things like this, but how does the champion lose the top award to the second place finisher? Or is this based on Ewert's racewalking as well?

It's not a reward for best/fastest runner (that would be NXN champion for example), but looks holistically at elite athletes and all their achievements.

- high GPA

- volunteering

- being a role model for the sport

- athletic achievements

etc., are all part of the evaluation. Ewert has not just excelled academically and athletically, she also has a huge resume of outside activities, like being an altar server, supporting the homeless, and being part of organizing a youth XC camps where she teaches kids about race-walking. Clearly, she deserves the reward this year.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

It's not a reward for best/fastest runner (that would be NXN champion for example), but looks holistically at elite athletes and all their achievements.

Thanks. That's why I asked.

Do they follow that for the football & basketball recipents? I thought it always seems to go to the best in each sport, but I appreciate your correction.

This was also the track and field award. Tuohy won the cross country award a while back.

I was a little surprised that there wasnt a sprinter or jumper who had a better 2020 track season (what there was anyway), but I read some of the verbiage from gatorade and she really won based on international class performance in the racewalk, combined with all around performance in steeple, cross country, and track events. Nice kid, nice hs career, good winner in an odd 2020.

I guess this was based on indoor mostly? Seems like a tough calculation with essentially no season.

No beef with the decision though, good for her.

Yes it does in all sports. Sure you need all of those things but they start with the best athlete and ensure that they check the blocks on the other criteria. If all criteria were equally important, you would have people winning that you never heard of before. She is the best track athlete as determined by them. Go through each state winner of every sport and it will 99% of the time be the best athlete and in the other cases it will be the next best athlete. It is not the best student who did the most volunteer work who wad the best leader who happens to play the sport.

devastated rip wrote:

katelyn tuohy goes home devastated

I'm sure she is disappointed but not devastated.

What's with everyone being devastated on this board? Its so douchy. You family dying in a house fire is devastating, minor disappointments in life are not

3 NXN wins, four Gatorade player of the year wins (3 XC and 1 T&F) and one Gatorade athlete of the year win. I'd say she did ok. As they say, she won more than anybody else in any sport.

ny guy wrote:

I was a little surprised that there wasnt a sprinter or jumper who had a better 2020 track season (what there was anyway), but I read some of the verbiage from gatorade and she really won based on international class performance in the racewalk, combined with all around performance in steeple, cross country, and track events. Nice kid, nice hs career, good winner in an odd 2020.

Cross Country matters for a track award?

runnerexpert wrote:

ny guy wrote:

I was a little surprised that there wasnt a sprinter or jumper who had a better 2020 track season (what there was anyway), but I read some of the verbiage from gatorade and she really won based on international class performance in the racewalk, combined with all around performance in steeple, cross country, and track events. Nice kid, nice hs career, good winner in an odd 2020.

Cross Country matters for a track award?

only if they dont give out a XC award (which they do)

predictors wrote:

Yes it does in all sports. Sure you need all of those things but they start with the best athlete and ensure that they check the blocks on the other criteria. If all criteria were equally important, you would have people winning that you never heard of before. She is the best track athlete as determined by them. Go through each state winner of every sport and it will 99% of the time be the best athlete and in the other cases it will be the next best athlete. It is not the best student who did the most volunteer work who wad the best leader who happens to play the sport.

Thanks. This kind of echoes what I picked up from the responses. I appreciate the clarity.

Another question, I certainly do not have any objection to this or any other pick, but is the racewalk even a high school sanctioned event? If that door is opened people could win based on all sorts of things, like "she was the back-up goalie on the state runner-up hockey team."

I know enough to understand that her running alone certainly had her in the conversation and she is very deserving. Please do not see my ignorance of the process as anything negative toward the young woman in any way.