In its 33rd year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company Monday announced Ellie Abraham of Brookings High School as its 2017-18 Gatorade South Dakota Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year. She is the first Bobcat to receive the honor.

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 Abraham as South Dakota’s best high school girls’ cross country runner. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year, Abraham joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports.

The 5-foot-5 sophomore won the Class AA state meet this past season with a state-record time of 18 minutes, 23.48 seconds, breaking the tape 16.24 seconds ahead of her next-closest competitor and leading the Bobcats to a 10th-place finish as a team. Abraham, who also won the state title as an eighth-grader, is a four-time First Team All-State selection, finishing fourth in 2014 and third in 2016 to go with her two championships. 

A member of the all-state choir as well as the BHS marching band, concert band and jazz band, Abraham has volunteered locally with Habitat for Humanity and as a youth soccer referee.

“What is so impressive with Ellie is that for only being a sophomore, she runs like a savvy veteran,” said Jason Wagoner, head coach at Sioux Falls Roosevelt. “She is so physically strong that when she makes her move in a race, she makes it look effortless and it’s decisive.” 

Abraham has maintained a 4.0 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her junior 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 work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journal-ists to determine the state winners in each sport. 

Abraham joins Gatorade South Dakota Girls Cross Country Runners of the Year Laura Nelson (2016-17, Gayville-Volin), Ella Byers (2015-16, Chamberlain), Emily Hawkes (2014-15, Madison), Tamara Gorman (2013-14, 2012-13, 2010-11, Rapid City Stevens), Alex Hess (2011-12, Sioux Falls Roosevelt), Madeleine Takahashi (2009-10, Sturgis), Seanna Kautz (2008-09, Sioux Falls Roosevelt) and Mariah Hofer (2007-08, Yankton) as athletes who have won the cross country award since its inception in 2007. 

As a Gatorade Player of the Year, Abraham will be able to select a national or local youth sports organization to receive a grant as part of the Gatorade Play It Forward program. Every Gatorade Player of the Year state winner receives a $1,000 grant to donate and will have the opportunity to enter for an additional $10,000 spotlight grant by writing a brief essay explaining why their selected organization deserves additional support. Twelve spotlight grants – one for each sport – will be announced throughout the year.