Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year: Chanelle Price

Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year: 

Chanelle Price 

Pennsylvania standout named nation’s top high school performer 

EASTON, Pa. (June 18, 2008) – In its third decade of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade 

Company, in partnership with RISE Magazine, today announced senior middle distance runner Chanelle Price of Easton 

Area High School (Easton, Pa.) as its 2007-08 Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.  Price becomes 

the first student-athlete from the state of Pennsylvania to win Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year 

honors. 

The award, which recognizes not only athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and 

exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes Price as the nation’s best high school girls track & 

field athlete.  A national advisory board comprised of sportswriters and sport-specific experts from around the country 

helped select Price from the more than 439,000 high school girls track & field athletes nationwide.  Price is now a finalist 

for the prestigious Gatorade Female High School Athlete of the Year award, to be presented at a special afternoon 

ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July. 

No stranger to international competition, the senior half-miler placed sixth in the 800-meter run against a world-class field 

at the Prefontaine Classic earlier this month with a time of 2:01.61, clocking the second-best time in scholastic history and 

eclipsing a milestone set by track legend Mary Decker.  Shattering the state record and winning her third consecutive gold 

medal in the 800-meter with a time of 2:02.90 at the PIAA Class AAA state meet in May, Price helped the Red Rovers to a 

seventh-place finish as a team.  A two-time 800-meter champion at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, Price also won the 800- 

meter event at the 2008 National Scholastic Indoor Championships and the 2007 Nike Indoor Nationals.  Price is a five- 

time individual national champion and has qualified for the upcoming 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. 

Price has maintained a 99.28 average in the classroom, placing her in the top five percent of her class.  Easton Area’s 

Homecoming and Prom Queen, Price donates her time as a Special Olympics volunteer and as a local Vacation Bible 

School counselor.  A member of the Future Business Leaders of America and the Key Club, she also participates in 

multiple community-service initiatives as an inductee of the National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society. 

“Price has not lost a race at the prep level all year and keeps improving,” said Joy Kamani of the National Scholastic 

Sports Foundation, prep track’s most prestigious meet organizer.  “A consistent performer all season long, who 

competently runs distances from 400 to 5000 meters, she set a new prep record in the 500 meters indoors this year. 

Earlier this month, she competed against some of the world’s best elite 800-meter runners, including the great (2000 

Sydney Games Olympic Champion) Maria Mutola, and powered to a 6th-place finish and a new personal-best of 2:01.61, 

which puts her No. 2 on the all-time high school list behind (the late, two-time Olympian) Kim Gallagher.  She is in a class 

of her own.” 

Price has signed a National Letter of Intent to run at the University of Tennessee this fall. 

“Without question, Chanelle is deserving of recognition as the nation’s best high school girls track & field athlete based on 

her statistics on the track and the tremendous ability she’s demonstrated,” said Gatorade Senior Vice President of Sports 

Marketing Jeff Urban.  “But she is also a shining example to peers and aspiring young players of what a leader and a 

student-athlete should be.  She represents everything we hope for in a Gatorade Player of the Year recipient.” 

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 RISE Magazine, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media 

advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.  

Former notable Gatorade National Players of the Year include:  

• Reigning 200-meter world champion Allyson Felix 

• 2004 Athens Olympic Games 4-x-400-meter gold medalist Monique Henderson 

• 2006 IAAF World Athlete of the Year and 400-meter American record-holder Sanya Richards 

• Softball gold medalist Cat Osterman 

• WNBA all-time leading scorer and rebounder Lisa Leslie 

• NFL all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith 

• 2007 Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning 

• Beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh 

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information and lists of past winners and 

future announcement dates, visit gatorade.com/playeroftheyear. 

ALL-TIME GATORADE NATIONAL GIRLS TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR HONOREES 

Year Name High School Status 

2007-08 Chanelle Price Easton Area/Easton, PA High School Senior 

2006-07 Emily Pendleton Woodmore/Elmore, OH Univ. of Michigan 

2005-06 Bianca Knight Ridgeland/Ridgeland, MS Univ. of Texas 

2004-05 Brittany Daniels Merrill F. West/Tracy, CA Univ. of Tennessee  

2003-04 Shalonda Solomon Long Beach Poly/Englewood, CA Univ. of South Carolina 

2002-03 Allyson Felix Los Angeles Baptist/North Hills, CA USA Track & Field/adidas 

2001-02 Sanya Richards St. Thomas Aquinas/Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA Track & Field/Nike 

2000-01 Ychlindria Spears Luling/Luling, TX Univ. of Texas Grad. 

1999-00 Monique Henderson Samuel FB Morse/San Diego, CA USA Track & Field/Reebok 

1998-99 Stacy Martin Edgewood/Ellettsville, IN Auburn Grad.  

1997-98 Angela Williams Chino/Chino, CA USA Track & Field/Nike 

1996-97 Kinshasa Davis Woodrow Wilson/Long Beach, CA USC Grad. 

1995-96 Kim Mortensen Thousand Oaks/Thousand Oaks, CA UCLA Grad. 

1994-95 Joanna Hayes J.W. North/Riverside, CA USA Track & Field/Nike 

1993-94 Suzy Powell Thomas Downey/Modesto, CA USA Track & Field/Asics 

1992-93 Marion Jones Thousand Oaks/Thousand Oaks, CA USA Track & Field/Nike 

1991-92 Marion Jones Thousand Oaks/Thousand Oaks, CA USA Track & Field/Nike 

1990-91 Marion Jones Rio Mesa/Oxnard, CA USA Track & Field/Nike 

1989-90 Melisa Weis Bakersfield/Bakersfield, CA Cal State-Bakersfield Grad. 

1988-89 Angela Burnham Rio Mesa/Oxnard, CA UCLA Grad. 

1987-88 Chryste Gaines South Oak Cliff/Dallas, TX Stanford Grad. 

1986-87 Janeene Vickers Pomona/Pomona, CA UCLA Grad. 

1985-86 Yolanda Johnson George Washington/Denver, CO Univ. of Colorado Grad.