Sophia Gorriaran Named 2019-2020 R.I. Gatorade Track & Field Player of the Year

CHICAGO (June 25, 2020) — In its 35th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade
Company today announced Sophia Gorriaran of Moses Brown School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Rhode Island Girls
Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Gorriaran is the first Gatorade Rhode Island Girls Track & Field Athlete 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
Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, 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 5-foot-6 freshman set state records in the 500-meter run and the 800-meter run during the 2020 indoor season.
Gorriaran was the state’s top-ranked runner this winter in the 200, 300, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and mile and owned
Top-50 national rankings at every distance from the 500 to the mile. Running for her Providence Cobras club team this
spring, Gorriaran shattered the state record in the 800 by more than five seconds with a time of 2:03.36, which ranked
as the nation’s No. 32 clocking in history among prep competitors. Her 2:03.98 in the 800 at the Boston University Last
Chance Meet in February set a national freshman record.

Gorriaran has volunteered locally at an urban elementary school and as a youth track coach. “Sophia is dedicated—she
works hard at virtually every workout,” said Jon Barnes, assistant coach of Barrington High School. “She is an intelligent
racer and knows what she can do and when to do it. And she is competitive. She is never shy about going against the
best or shooting for a time goal.”

Gorriaran has maintained a 3.79 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her sophomore 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 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.

Gorriaran joins recent Gatorade Rhode Island Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Annika Kelly (2018-19, Barrington
High School), Nikki Merrill (2017-18 & 2016-17, Portsmouth High School), May Stern (2015-16, Classical High School),
Quashira McIntosh (2014-15, Hope High School), and Maddy Berkson (2013-14, 2012-13 & 2011-12 Classical High
School) among the state’s list of former award winners.

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.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/Gatorade.