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 | Gatorade 2009 Cross Country
Runners of the Year
January-February, 2010
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Goethals claims Gatorade Girls National XC Runner of the Year
PHOTO GALLERY: Goethals' Greatest Hits - Michigan-based Pat Davey has photographed Megan's achievements throughout the years, from local meets, to Foot Locker MW, to Wednesday's ceremonies
Michigan's unbeaten, fast-finishing Foot Locker Finals champ wins honor
By Chad Konecky
Dissecting cats was the order of the day in anatomy class for Megan Goethals, so when television cameras flooded her classroom, her face took on a countenance of half-surprise, half-confusion. The cameras were there to record a life-changing announcement: Goethals has today been named the 2009-10 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
 “I was so surprised—I’d been checking DyeStat.com every day and I thought sure I hadn’t won the award,” said Goethals, who is the first female athlete from Michigan ever to receive a national Gatorade award. “I saw that Lukas (Verzbicas of Sandburg High, Orland Park IL) was the boys national winner last week, so I figured, ‘It’s not going to happen.’”
The returning 2008-09 Gatorade Michigan Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, Goethals completed an unbeaten season by winning the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships this past fall with a time of 17:06.9. The Falcons’ 5-foot-8 senior also shattered her own state meet course record by 16 seconds in 16:54.8, repeating as Division 1 champion despite a stiff headwind.
Goethals, who owns six course records in the state of Michigan, added regular-season victories at the Spartan Invitational, the West Bloomfield Invitational, and the Foot Locker Midwest Regional championships in 2009. At Foot Locker, she out-leaned junior and three-time Gatorade Texas Runner of the Year Chelsey Sveinsson at the tape to produce the most exciting finish in the event’s 31-year history.
Goethals, turns 18 on July 8, has maintained a 3.5 GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society, she has volunteered on behalf of Meals on Wheels as well as US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer, a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities.
“Goethals backed up her national title by dominating Michigan all fall and winning decisively at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional,” said Steve Underwood, Senior Editor for ESPN RISE/DyeStat.com. “Her state meet victory—a 16:54.8 in the 5K that beat a great Division 1 field by a 1:15 margin—may have been the best state meet performance by anyone in the country.”
Goethals has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship at the University of Washington this fall. She also earned Gatorade Michigan Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year honors in the spring of her junior year.
In pre-race interviews leading up to last fall’s Foot Locker championships, Goethals said she was going “to expect the unexpected” from the race field and that she did not want to “rely on my kick.” As it turned out, both observations were insightful in their own way. Trailing Sveinsson by a seemingly insurmountable gap with about 200 meters of real estate left, Goethals somehow—and very unexpectedly—ran down Sveinsson at the tape on the strength of a withering kick. She claims she’s never run a quarter-mile under 62 seconds.
 Goethals’s win over Sveinsson at Foot Locker was the fourth installment in a long-standing rivalry. The former edged the latter in taking third at the 2008 Foot Locker nationals as a junior, then settled for runner-up behind Sveinsson in both the mile (4:51.33) and the two-mile (10:20.35) at the Nike Outdoor Nationals last spring. Goethals won the Foot Locker Midwest regional title in each of her last two high school cross country campaigns.
Goethals’s winning time at the 2009 Foot Locker nationals was 15 seconds faster than reigning Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year Jordan Hasay (Mission College Prep, San Luis Obispo CA), now at Oregon, who won the same race in 2008, and 12 seconds faster than the time of the Gatorade award’s inaugural cross country national winner Ashley Brasovan (Wellington High, Wellington FL), who won Foot Locker nationals in 2007. Goethals’s win was 22 seconds faster than the winning Foot Locker nationals’ time in 2006, clocked by former Independence High (Franklin, TN) standout and current Stanford freshman Kathy Kroeger.
Goethals was the Emerging Elite Mile champion at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals. She is also a two-time state champion in track, winning the 1600 and 3200 at last spring’s Division 1 state meet, clocking the state’s fastest time in both events. Of course, for the moment, she is best remembered for the remarkable Foot Locker finish, which has become a streaming-video Internet sensation. And predictably, Goethals is more than ready to move past that shining moment.
“It’s one race and there are a lot of races,” said Goethals, who is unafraid of being defined by December’s race. “I have a college career ahead of me and hopefully I’ll do some things at that level. But I guess if I’m best known for that race, it’s not a bad thing to be known for. I’m just thrilled with this honor.”
Above photo: Megan Goethals of Rochester High School receives the 2009-10 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year trophy Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010 in Rochester Hills, Mich. In its 25 the year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, the award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. Photo/Gatorade, Susan Goldman, handout.
Lower photo: Megan Goethals, left, of Rochester High School receives the 2009-10 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year trophy from Tiffany Basnett, Gatorade Sports Marketing, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010 in Rochester Hills, Mich. In its 25th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, the award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. Photo/Gatorade, Susan Goldman, handout.
(Original Gatorade press release)
DETROIT (February 3, 2010) - In its 25th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, today announced Megan Goethals of Rochester High School (Rochester Hills, Mich.) as its 2009-10 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
 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 Goethals as the nation's best high school girls cross country runner. A national advisory panel comprised of sportswriters and sport-specific experts from around the country helped select Goethals from more than 198,000 high school girls cross country runners nationwide. Goethals 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.
The two-time Gatorade Michigan Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, Goethals completed an unbeaten season by winning the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships with a time of 17:06.9, during which she out-leaned junior and three-time Gatorade Texas Runner of the Year Chelsey Sveinnson at the tape to produce the most exciting finish in the event's 31-year history. The 5-foot-8 senior also shattered her own state meet course record by 16 seconds in 16:54.8, repeating as Division 1 champion despite a stiff headwind. Goethals, who owns six course records in the state of Michigan, added regular-season victories at the Spartan Invitational, the West Bloomfield Invitational, and the Foot Locker Midwest Regional Championships in 2009.
Goethals has maintained a 3.66 GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society, she has volunteered on behalf of Meals on Wheels as well as US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer, a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities.
"Goethals backed up her national title by dominating Michigan all fall and winning decisively at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional," said Steve Underwood, Senior Editor for ESPN RISE/DyeStat.com. "Her state meet victory-a 16:54.8 in the 5K that beat a great Division 1 field by a 1:15 margin-may have been the best state meet performance by anyone in the country."
Goethals, who also earned Gatorade Michigan Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year honors in the spring of her junior year, has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship at the University of Washington this fall.
"Without question, Megan is deserving of recognition as the nation's best high school girls cross country runner based on her statistics on the course and the impact her accomplishments have had on Rochester High School's success," said Gatorade Senior Vice President of Sports Marketing Jennifer Storms. "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 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.
Former notable Gatorade National Players of the Year include:
* Reigning American record-holder in the mile Alan Webb
* WNBA all-time leading scorer and rebounder Lisa Leslie
* Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning
* Two-time beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh
* 2009 American League MVP Joe Mauer
To keep up to date on the latest happenings, become a fan of Gatorade Player of the Year on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For more information on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of former winners, and future announcement dates, visit http://playeroftheyear.gatorade.com.
ALL-TIME GATORADE NATIONAL GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY RUNNERS OF THE YEAR
YEAR NAME HIGH SCHOOL STATUS
2009-10 Megan Goethals Rochester/Rochester Hills, MI, High School Senior
2008-09 Jordan Hasay, Mission College Prep/San Luis Obispo, CA, University of Oregon
2007-08 Ashley Brasovan, Wellington/Wellington, FL, Duke University
Photo by John Dye
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