ELDORADO’S SISNEROS NAMED GATORADE NEW MEXICO GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (April 8, 2021) — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Laurynn Sisneros of Eldorado High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade New Mexico Girls Cross Country Player of the Year. Sisneros is the third Gatorade New Mexico Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Eldorado 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 field, distinguishes Sisneros as New Mexico’s best high school girls cross country player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year award to be announced in April, Sisneros joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lukas Verzbicas (2010-11, 2009-10, Carl Sandburg High School, Orland Park, Ill.), Megan Goethals (2009-10, Rochester High School, Rochester Hills, Mich.), Jordan Hasay (2008-09, Mission College Preparatory Catholic High School, San Luis Obispo, Calif.) and Chris Derrick (2007-08, Neuqua Valley High School, Naperville, Ill.).
The 5-foot-6 senior won the Class 5A state meet title this spring with a time of 18:35.78, breaking the tape 21.37 seconds ahead of her next-closest competitor and leading the Eagles to a second-place finish as a team. Sisneros also won the District 2-5A Championships, her only other race during the abbreviated spring season. She placed 29th at the AAU National Championships in Florida in December. Sisneros finished sixth at the 2019 state meet, helping the Eagles capture the state title. She also won the 1,600-meter run at the Class 5A state meet as a sophomore.
An award-winning artist who creates prints and ceramic works, Sisneros has volunteered locally as a youth running coach, and she has donated her time to multiple community service initiatives through her school’s Key Club. “Laurynn is very hard-working and dedicated to her sport,” said Chokri Dhaouadi, head coach of Eldorado High. “As a runner, she is very mature and knows how she can win races. She prefers to run in the front and has an exceptional kick.”
Sisneros has maintained a weighted 4.50 GPA in the classroom. She has made a verbal commitment to attend the United States Military Academy, where she will run cross country and track, beginning 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 Player of the Year Selection Committee, who 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.
Sisneros joins recent Gatorade New Mexico Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Leah Futey (2019-20, Sue Cleveland High School), Jasmine Turtle-Morales (2018-19, Eldorado High School), Amanda Mayoral (2017-18 & 2016-17, Cleveland High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Sisneros has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Sisneros 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 have totaled more than $2.7 million across 1,117 organizations.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
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