The post-season accolades continue to roll in for Morgantown's Irene Riggs. She has been named the Gatorade National Player of the Year for Cross Country. As far as I know, she is the first West Virginia athlete to win this honor in any sport.

The award follows a year in which Riggs won every meet she ran, had her foot ran over by a car, shattered the State Meet Course Record (winning by over 2:00), smashed the course record at the Cary, NC Nike Southeast Regional (winning that race by 1:24), won the Nike National Championship (running away from the field to win by almost 14 seconds and recording the 2nd fastest ever time on that course in extremely windy conditions), and won the USATF U20 National Championship over 6K (closing the last kilometer at sub-5:00 pace).

One of the criteria for winning the award is academic achievement. As Riggs is heading off to Stanford in the fall, I think it's fair to say that box is checked as well.

The 3rd criteria is exemplary character. I've certainly never heard anyone say a bad thing about her, and she adds fundraising work for the WVU Children's Hospital.

Irene Riggs exits her final cross country season as, without-a-doubt, our greatest every Cross Country runner.

For the official articles, see https://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/winner/irene-riggs/39496

and https://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com/poy/assets/writable/73509/2023_GXC_IRiggs.pdf