CHICAGO (January 24, 2022) -- In its 37th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Karrie Baloga of Cornwall Central High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade New York Girls Cross
Country Player of the Year. Baloga is the second Gatorade New York Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be
chosen from Cornwall Central 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 field, distinguishes Baloga as New York's best
high school girls cross country player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country
Player of the Year award to be announced in February, Baloga joins an elite alumni association of state award winners in 12 sports, including Lukas Verzbicas (2010-11 & 2009-10, Carl Sandburg High School, Orland Park,
Ill.), Megan Goethals (2009-10, Rochester High School, Rochester Hills, Mich.), Jordan Hasay (2008-09, Mission
College Preparatory Catholic High School, San Luis Obispo, Calif.) and Chris Derrick (2007-08, Neuqua Valley
High School, Naperville, Ill.).
The 5-foot-7 junior took fourth at the national Eastbay Cross Country Championships this past season with a time of
17:29.1, earning All-American honors in the process. Baloga also won the New York Federation Championship in
17:54.7, and broke the tape at the Section 9 championships, the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational and the Eastern
States Championship race at the Manhattan College Invitational. She took third at the Class A state meet and was
fifth at the Eastbay Northeast Regional Championships.
Baloga has volunteered locally on behalf of her school's Environmental Club and youth running programs. "Karrie
is one of those athletes a coach may have once or twice in a career," said Cornwall Central High School coach Dave
Feuer. "I first started coaching her in eighth grade and immediately saw that I was working with someone years
ahead of her actual age as far as work ethic and the will to win."
Baloga has maintained an A average in the classroom. She 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 the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection
Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and
determine the state winners in each sport.
Baloga joins recent Gatorade New York Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Brooke Rauber (2020-21, Tully High
School) and Katelyn Tuohy (2019-20, 2018-19, & 2017-18, North Rockland High School), among the state's list of
former award winners.
Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable
lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade's "Play it Forward" platform, Baloga has the opportunity to
award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the
benefits of playing sports. Baloga is also eligible to submit a short 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 $3.5 million across more than 1,300
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 studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at
facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.