BENTONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED
GATORADE ARKANSAS GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (January 22, 2024) — In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today
announced Haley Loewe of Bentonville High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Arkansas Girls Cross Country Player of the
Year. Loewe is the first Gatorade Arkansas Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Bentonville High
School.
The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the
community, distinguishes Loewe as Arkansas’ best high school girls cross country player. From CEOs and coaches to star
athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that
includes Irene Riggs (2022-23, 2021-22 & 2020-21, Morgantown High School, Morgantown, W. Va.), Katelyn Tuohy
(2019-20, 2018-19 & 2017-18, North Rockland High School, Thiels, N.Y.) and Jordan Hasay (2008-09, Mission College
Preparatory Catholic High School, San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
The 5-foot-6 senior won the Class 6A state meet this past season, breaking the tape in 17:49.77 more than 44 seconds
ahead of her next-closest competitor and leading the Tigers to a second-place finish as a team. Loewe also won the
featured El Caliente Division race at the Chile Pepper XC Festival, clocking the fastest time in history by an Arkansas prep
girl at the event (17:03.1). The returning Gatorade State Player of the Year, she raced to the fastest all-class time at the state
meet as well.
A devoted volunteer with the Rogers Dream Center, which helps underprivileged families with Christmas gifts, Loewe has
also donated her time locally on behalf of the Keypoint Church at Fall Fest in addition to packing meals for the Feed My
Starving Children program. “Haley Loewe rewrote the record books in the El Caliente Division race at the Chile Pepper
Festival en route to repeating as Gatorade Player of the Year,” said Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack. “She also won her second
consecutive Class 6A title, routing the field by a wide margin.”
Loewe has maintained a 4.02 weighted GPA in the classroom. She has signed a national letter of intent to run on
scholarship at the University of Tennessee 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.
Two-time winner Loewe joins recent Gatorade Arkansas Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Olivia Pielemeier (2021-
22, Lake Hamilton High School), Mia Loafman (2020-21, Rogers High School), and Ali Nachtigal (2019-20, Rogers High
School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to
donate to a social impact partner. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $4.9 million
across more than 1,600 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, 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.
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