SHAWNEE MISSION WEST HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT NAMED GATORADE KANSAS GIRLS TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (June 20, 2012) — In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, today announced Alli Cash of Shawnee Mission West High School as its 2011-12 Gatorade Kansas Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Cash is the first Gatorade Kansas Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Shawnee Mission West 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 track, distinguishes Cash as Kansas’ 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, Cash joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Allyson Felix (2001-02, Los Angeles Baptist, 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.), Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.), Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt HS, Ia.) and Bianca Knight (2006-07, Ridgeland HS, Miss.).
The 5-foot-7 junior won three individual Class 6A state championships this spring and led the Vikings to a fifth-place finish as a team. The state’s Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, Cash won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:15.51, the 1,600-meter run in 4:52.31 and the 3,200-meter run in 10:46.71. She also anchored the 4x800-meter relay to first place in 9:24.28 and finished third in the adidas Dream Mile.
Cash has maintained a 4.56 GPA in the classroom. She has volunteered locally on behalf of an area soup kitchen and a peer leadership program for physically challenged students.
“Alli is the best talent I have ever been associated with, but that’s merely a part of who she really is,” said Shawnee Mission West coach Rick Rogers. “She has an amazing way of balancing her social life, academic achievements and her never-ending training routine without ever missing a beat.”
Cash will begin her senior 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 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.
Cash joins recent Gatorade Kansas Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Megan Smith (2010-11, Olathe South High School), Kearsten Peoples (2009-10, Ottawa), Heather Bergmann (2008-09, Concordia), and Roxi Grizzle (2007-08, Tonganoxie) among the state’s list of former award winners.
