Gorriaran Named R.I. Gatorade Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year

CHICAGO (July 2, 2021) — In its 36th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Sophia Gorriaran of Moses Brown School as its 2020-21 Gatorade Rhode Island Girls Track & Field
Player of the Year. Gorriaran is the first Gatorade Rhode Island Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen
from Moses Brown 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 Gorriaran as Rhode Island’s
best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field
Player of the Year award to be announced in July, Gorriaran joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners
in 12 sports, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist
High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-
15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).

The state’s returning Gatorade Girls Track & Field Player of the Year, the 5-foot-6 sophomore broke Mary Decker’s 45-
year-old sophomore class national record in the 800-meter run at June’s U.S. Olympic Trials. At the time of her
selection, Gorriaran’s Olympic Trial time of 2:02.26 broke her own state record and ranked No. 3 nationally among 2021
prep competitors in the event. She is also ranked in the Top 50 nationally in the 400-meter dash as well as the 1500-
meter, mile and 2-mile runs. Gorriaran is the top-ranked runner in the state at distances from the 200-meter dash to the
mile. She owns eight state records and is second in national prep history in the indoor 600-meter run with a time of
1:27.02.

Gorriaran has volunteered locally at an inner-city elementary school and as a youth track coach. “I have had the
privilege of knowing Sophia since she was five years old,” said Thom Spann, head coach of Hope High and Gorriaran’s
club coach with the Providence Cobras. “I could tell right away that she was special—she never backed down from the
older kids. When all is said and done, Sophia will be the greatest female track athlete in Rhode Island’s history.”
Gorriaran has maintained a 3.87 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school in the 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.

Two-time winner Gorriaran joins recent Gatorade Rhode Island Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Annika Kelly
(2018-19, Barrington High School), and Nikki Merrill (2017-18 & 2016-17, Portsmouth High School), among the state’s
list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” Gorriaran has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant
to a local or national youth sports organization of their choosing. Gorriaran 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 playeroftheyear.gatorade.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at
twitter.com/Gatorade.

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