Gatorade again names Ava Thurston top VT h.s. girls XC runner

Jan. 28, 2022  |  By Waterbury Roundabout 

Senior Ava Thurston leads the pack at the state Division II championship meet. Her first-place finish led the team to take top honors. Photo by Ann Zetterstrom

Waterbury’s Ava Thurston for the second time has been named the top girls high school cross country runner in the Gatorade Player of the Year program for 2021-22.

The announcement was made Thursday as Gatorade honors top high school student athletes across multiple sports. 

The Harwood Union High School senior previously received the Gatorade honor in 2019-20 when she was a sophomore. Thurston is the first Harwood girl runner to earn this distinction. 

Harwood’s Sam Nishi was named the Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross Country Player of the Year in 2013-14 and 2014-15.  

The award recognizes both outstanding athletic excellence as well as high standards of academic  achievement and exemplary character demonstrated both on and off the field.

The award now makes Thurston a finalist for Gatorade’s national girls cross country award to be announced in February.

Thurston was a standout in the fall season, racing to the Division 2 individual state championship with a time of 19:29.4 and leading Harwood Union’s Highlanders to the state title as a team. 

She won the state’s Meet of Champions in 18:24.1. Her third-place finish at the New England Championships helped her team finish fifth in the region. She also broke the tape at the Manchester Invitational, the Burlington Invitational, and the Harwood Invitational. 

Harwood Union High School Cross Country Coach John Kerrigan notes that in a sport that spotlights individuals, Thurston is a dedicated team player. “Ava is the first runner in the history of Vermont high school cross country to win the girls Division 2 championship in four consecutive years,” Kerrigan said. “What sets her apart, however, is that her number-one concern has always been the finish of her team.” 

Thurston also excels as a Nordic skier. At the U.S. National Championships in Utah recently, she was a top finisher in sprint qualifications. Last winter, she represented the U.S. at the World Junior Championships in Finland. 

In school, Thurston is active with the Harwood Peace Alliance and volunteers with the school’s chapter of the Rooted Organizing Community. Thurston has maintained a 3.87 GPA in the classroom and also makes lacrosse her spring season sport.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually names state and District of Columbia girls and boys top high school athletes in football, volleyball, cross country, basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, and track & field. One national award per sport is awarded as well. 

As part of the honor, Gatorade has a “Play it Forward” effort through which Thurston may choose to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization that supports young athletes. That recipient organization also may be nominated for a $10,000 spotlight grant from Gatorade. 

The Gatorade program began in 1985. Other past Vermont honorees in other sports from Harwood were Tor Fiske for boys soccer in 1987-88 and Ray Van Rooyen for boys track & field in 1993-94, according to a Gatorade program spokesman David Prather.

More information about it including past winners is online at playeroftheyear.gatorade.com.