MADISON AREA MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT NAMED GATORADE MAINE BOYS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (January 23, 2012) — In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, today announced Matt McClintock of Madison Area Memorial HS as its 2011-12 Gatorade Maine Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. McClintock is the first Gatorade Maine Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year to be chosen from Madison Area Memorial HS. 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 McClintock as Maine’s best high school boys cross country runner. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced in January, McClintock 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.), Kevin Garnett (1992-93, Maudlin HS, S.C.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.) and Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.).
The 5-foot-10 senior raced to a third consecutive Class C individual state championship this past season with a time of 16:00. The state’s returning Gatorade Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, McClintock placed sixth at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional championships in 15:51.2 and 15th at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 15:31.3. He earned third at the New England Cross Country Championships in 15:39.
Also a track standout, McClintock has maintained an A average in the classroom and ranks No. 1 in his graduating class. A member of the National Honor Society, he has volunteered on behalf of the Athens Craft Fair, the Madison Food Pantry and his school’s Thanksgiving dinner for senior citizens, in addition to donating his time as a youth athletic instructor.
“Matt is a self-motivated person with set goals,” said Madison Area Memorial head coach Robert Hagopian. “He has met and exceeded all his goals that he set for himself. Matt did this by hard work and setting high standards for himself. I have been coaching for over 30 years, and he is truly the ideal student-athlete, who I will miss greatly next year.”
McClintock has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship at Purdue University 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 ESPNHS and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
McClintock joins Gatorade Maine Boys Cross Country Runners of the Year Will Geoghegan (2009-10, 2008-09, Brunswick) and Nick Williams (2007-08, Poland Regional) as athletes who have won the cross country award since its inception in 2007.
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Contact: Lauren Rollins (312-729-3607)
