Galloway Repeats as KY Gatorade T&F Athlete of the Year

CHICAGO (June 20, 2019) - In its 34th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Sophie Galloway of Graves County High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Kentucky Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Galloway is the first Gatorade Kentucky Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Graves County 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 track, distinguishes Galloway as Kentucky's best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Galloway joins an elite alumni association of state track & field award-winners, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).

The state's returning Gatorade Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year, the 6-foot sophomore won the 100-meter hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump at the Class AAA state meet this past season, leading the Eagles to a fifth-place finish as a team. Galloway's winning triple jump of 40 feet, 7 inches shattered her own state record by more than a foot.

Galloway has volunteered locally as a youth track coach, and she had donated her time on behalf of multiple fundraising campaigns to benefit special-needs children and a women's shelter. "Sophie is a phenomenally gifted athlete," said Cory Westerfield, head coach of Marshall County High School. "Sophie was the top jumper and hurdler in the state this spring pretty much from Day 1. She just gets in there and gets after it."

Galloway has maintained an A average in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school 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. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year.

Two-time winner Galloway joins Gatorade Kentucky Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Michaela Reinhart (2016-17, Lexington Catholic High School), Lily Lowe (2015-16, Calloway County High School), and Kianna Gray (2014-15 & 2013-14, North Hardin High School) among the state's list of former award winners.

As a part of Gatorade's cause marketing platform "Play it Forward," Galloway also has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of her choosing. She is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.

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.

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.