CHICAGO (May 10, 2021) — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best High School athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Bryce Lentz of Colgan High School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Virginia Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. Lentz is the first Gatorade Virginia Boys Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Colgan 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 Lentz as Virginia’s best high school boys cross country player.

Lentz 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 6-foot-3, 167-pound senior won the Class 6 state meet during the abbreviated spring season with a time of 16:10, breaking the tape nine seconds ahead of his next-closest competitor and leading the Sharks to a fifth-place finish as a team.

Lentz was undefeated during the spring season, and also crossed the line first at the Cardinal District Championship and the Region 6B Championship meets. During the winter indoor track season, Lentz won the 3,200-meter run at the Class 6 state meet.

A member of his local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Lentz has volunteered locally through his school’s National Honor Society.

“Bryce is a very focused athlete and puts in an incredible amount of time training and striving to excel,” said Ty Kosa, a track coach at Forest Park High. “He has made his presence known and his talent is obvious. He has continued to develop even amidst the craziness that has ensued this year.”

In the classroom, Lentz has maintained a weighted 4.21 GPA. He has made a verbal commitment to attend the United States Air Force Academy, where he will run for the cross country and track teams, 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, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

Lentz joins recent Gatorade Virginia Boys Cross Country Players of the Year Daniel O'Brien (2019-20 & 2018-19, Virginia Episcopal School), Sam Affolder (2017-18, Loudoun Valley High School), and Waleed Suliman (2016-17, Douglas Freeman High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Lentz has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Lentz 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.

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