CHICAGO (January 24, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best High School athletes, Gatorade today announced Maddie Gardiner of The Covenant School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Virginia Girls Cross Country Player of the Year.

Gardiner is the first Gatorade Virginia Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from The Covenant 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 Gardiner as Virginia’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 February, Gardiner 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-10 sophomore won the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division 2 state meet this past season with a time of 17:32.30, breaking the tape 54.2 seconds ahead of her next-closest competitor and leading the Eagles to a 15th-place finish as a team. Gardiner, who won six of nine races on the season, took third at the Eastbay South Regional Championships and crossed the line in 38th at the national Eastbay Cross Country Championships.

Gardiner has volunteered locally with Girls on the Run, and she has donated her time to multiple community service initiatives through her church youth group.

“Maddie Gardiner is an exceptional athlete,” said Ed Dickenson, Head Coach of North Cross School. “Her running form is so clean and relaxed that she makes fast running look effortless.”

Gardiner has maintained a weighted 4.36 GPA 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.

The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.

Gardiner joins recent Gatorade Virginia Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Carly Wilkes (2020-21, Glenvar High School), Bethany Graham (2019-20, John Champe High School), Mary Caroline Heinen (2018-19, Maggie L. Walker Governor's School), and Olivia Beckner (2017-18, South Lakes High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Gardiner has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Gardiner is also eligible to submit a short 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 $3.5 million across more than 1,300 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 playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade. ***