BIXBY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED
GATORADE OKLAHOMA GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PLAYER OF THE YEAR
CHICAGO (January 24, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Cayden Dawson of Bixby High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Oklahoma Girls Cross Country Player of the Year. Dawson is the first Gatorade Oklahoma Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Bixby High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Dawson as Oklahoma’s best high school girls cross country player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year award to be announced in February, Dawson joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lukas Verzbicas (2010-11 & 2009-10, Carl Sandburg High School, Orland Park, Ill.), Megan Goethals (2009-10, Rochester High School, Rochester Hills, Mich.), Jordan Hasay (2008-09, Mission College Preparatory Catholic High School, San Luis Obispo, Calif.) and Chris Derrick (2007-08, Neuqua Valley High School, Naperville, Ill.).
The 5-foot-3 senior became the first Oklahoma female runner to break the 17-minute mark in a five-kilometer race as she finished 14th at the national Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championship to earn All-American honors this past season. Dawson also took second at the Class 6A state meet and was the winner of the 17-18-year-old age group at the Cross Country Coaches National Youth Championships. Also a member of the Spartans track team, she set a state record in the 3,200-meter run as a junior.
A four-year member of the Bixby High Student Council, Dawson has volunteered locally as a running mentor, and she has donated her time to multiple community service initiatives through her church. “Cayden leads by example,” said Mike Stanton, head coach of Bixby High School. “She has been so dedicated to the sport and her team over the past four years. Running is her passion.”
Dawson has maintained a weighted 4.50 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at Oklahoma State University 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.
Dawson joins recent Gatorade Oklahoma Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Payton Hinkle (2020-21 & 2019-20, Broken Arrow High School), Sophia Maag (2018-19, Norman High School), and Rilee Rigdon (2017-18, Bartlesville High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
