GREELY HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT NAMED
GATORADE MAINE GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (January 8, 2014) — In its 29th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, today announced Kirstin Sandreuter of Greely High School as its 2013-14 Gatorade Maine Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. Sandreuter is the first Gatorade Maine Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year to be chosen from Greely 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 racecourse, distinguishes Sandreuter as Maine’s best high school girls cross country runner. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced in January, Sandreuter joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Ryan Hall (1999-00, 2000-01, Big Bear HS, Calif.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.) and Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.).
The 5-foot-1 senior distance runner won the Class B individual state championship with a time of 18:37.96 this past season, leading the Rangers to third place as a team. Also the Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year as named by The Portland Press Herald, Sandreuter captured fourth place at the New England Cross Country Championships in 17:48.60. She also placed 10th at the Foot Locker North Regional championships in 18:06, and then finished 20th at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 18:08.
Sandreuter has maintained a 4.00 GPA in the classroom. A member of her school’s French club and the French Honor Society as well as the National Honor Society, she has volunteered on behalf of her church’s youth ministry, as a mentor to elementary school students and as part of fundraising efforts to benefit Guatemalan families in need.
“I was impressed by Kirstin Sandreuter’s running talent and attitude,” said Mike Dinehart, head coach of rival Kennebunk High and four-time Gatorade Maine Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year Abbey Leonardi. “She’s a very nice young athlete, as well as a very good runner, and she’s worthy of Gatorade Maine Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year honors.”
Sandreuter will attend Cornell University, where she will run competitively, beginning this fall.
Sandreuter joins Gatorade Maine Girls Cross Country Runners of the Year Bethanie Brown (2012-13, Waterville High School), Abbey Leonardi (2011-12, 2010-11, 2009-10, & 2008-09, Kennebunk High School), and Anna Makaretz (2007-08, Yarmouth) as athletes who have won the cross country award since its inception in 2007.
