FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lauren Rollins (312-729-3607)
Century High School STANDOUT NAMED
GATORADE Maryland GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (January 13, 2011) — In its 26th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, today announced Maura Linde of Century High School as its 2010-11 Gatorade Maryland Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. Linde is the first Gatorade Maryland Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year to be chosen from Century 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 racecourse, distinguishes Linde as Maryland’s best high school girls cross country runner. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced in January, Linde 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-6 senior raced to her third consecutive Class 2A individual state title this past season with a time of 19:10, leading the Knights to the state title as a team. A four-time Baltimore Sun First Team All-Metro selection, Linde was also the fastest Maryland runner at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional championships, capturing 30th place in 19:22.1.
Linde has maintained a 3.62 GPA in the classroom. An accomplished violinist and a four-year member of her school’s orchestra, she has volunteered locally as part of multiple community service initiatives on behalf of the National Honor Society and the Girl Scouts of America.
“Maura Linde is an incredibly hard-working student athlete,” said Century High head coach Kristin Hadden. “She has shown her team that hard work and dedication can help you achieve great things.”
Linde has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship at Syracuse University 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 ESPN RISE 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.
Linde joins Gatorade Maryland Girls Cross Country Runners of the Year Anna Bosse (2009-10 & 2008-09, Walter Johnson), and Louise Hannallah (2007-08, Winston Churchill) as athletes who have won the cross country award since its inception in 2007.
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