When it boils down to it, this year's Gatorade POY race could be between two girls; both of who made our preseason list.
Several aspects go into awarding the POY award, so there are way more than just athletics in the deciding factors. Nevertheless, the committee has their work cut out in deciding this year's winner.
The decision will be announced on July 2. Here are our arguments for the top two candidates for the award.
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Jasmine Montgomery of San Antonio Reagan and Brynn Brown from Denton Guyer should be the two front runners as both runners won two gold medals at the UIL 6A state meet.
Montgomery was a streak of lightening all season long in the sprints. When we listed what she needed to do to be considered and what challenges she had to overcome, we should have kept a season long check list as she did everything we felt she needed to do.
The University of Oregon signee won both sprint events and ran faster than we thought she needed to. Her undefeated season in two events is evidence that she is an absolute talent and deserving of the POY award.
Montgomery went sub 11.30 four times this season in the 100m including her state meet run 11.09 (w) and 11.27 to win the adidas Boost Boston Games. In the 200m, a 22.94 (w) gave her the fastest time in the country in all conditions for both events.
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Brown came into the season as last year's track POY winner and this fall's cross country POY winner. Can Brown be beat out this year? All she did was the same thing she did last year, just way faster. Oh, and by the way, she added another event where she ran four elite performances this season.
The University of North Carolina signee finished the season with three TX No. 1 rankings and three US top 5 rankings (US No. 2 - 5,000m, US No. 3 - 3,200m, and US No. 5 - 1,600m).
Brown ran 9:58.77 to win the UIL 6A state championship in the 3,200m breaking her 10:08 state records that she set in 2019. She then narrowly missed the 1,600m record when she ran 4:41.29, the TX No. 2 all-time mark behind Julia Heymach's 2017 run of 4:40.97.
Prior to the state meet, Brown ran 15:56.89 at the Texas Distance Festival for the US No. 9 all-time performance in the 5,000m.
Even though, Brown was undefeated in three events this season, she still decided to a challenge to her senior year. The distance star added a new event to her repertoire, the 800m. Her PR entering the season was 2:18.74, but she managed to lower that by over nine seconds when she ran 2:09.60.