Jones, Grant Named Gatorade State POTY
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami signees Jaalen Jones and Robert Grant were named the Gatorade Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year in their respective home states.
Jones, a native of Alabaster, Ala., and Grant, who hails from Phoenix, Ariz., are among the 51 honorees for boys track & field. The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes the recipient as their state’s best high school boys track & field athlete. Jones and Grant are finalists for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year award.
“The Gatorade Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year is such a great recognition of the hard work and dedication that Bobby and Jaalen have shown,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “We are excited for them and that they are a part of the Hurricane track and field family.”
Jones is the first Gatorade Alabama Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Thompson High School. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.76 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 21.17 at the Class 6A state championship meet this spring. Jones also won the 100 at the Sugar Bowl Classic and the Mobile Challenge of Champions, and his season-best clocking of 10.35 ranked as the nation’s No. 7 performance among prep competitors in 2014 at the time of his selection.
Beyond his excellence on the track, Jones has maintained a 3.29 GPA in the classroom. A devoted member of his church community, Jones has volunteered locally on behalf of the Special Olympics and youth track programs.
“Jaalen is a coach’s dream, a hard-working, humble athlete with a good academic foundation,” said Thompson head coach Michael Montgomery via press release. “He’s a winner in every sense of the word.”
Grant is the third Gatorade Arizona Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Brophy College Preparatory.
The 5-foot-11, 167-pound senior won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.44 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles in 36.33 at the Division I state meet this season, leading the Broncos to third place as a team. Also the Boys’ Track Athlete of the Year as named by AZtrackXC.com and The Arizona Republic, Grant also captured third in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.11 at states and anchored the winning 4×400-meter relay that broke the tape in 3:20.47. His 300-meter hurdles time of 36.24 at the Northeast Valley Championships broke the state record and ranked as the nation’s No. 1 performance among prep competitors in 2014 at the time of his selection.
Also a football standout, Grant has maintained a 3.59 weighted GPA in the classroom. An active member of his school’s student council and intramural program, he has also volunteered on behalf of Homeward Bound, the Ryan House hospice facility for terminally ill children and Guatemala’s Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos orphanage.
“Robert Grant has earned his success in track and field through hard work with a competitive spirit and natural leadership,” said Brophy head coach Bill Kalkman via press release. “Most impressive, however, is his strongest recognizable trait of diligently working hard in track practice. The consistency, the intensity and the volume of running and hurdling work that Robert puts in every week have been unmatched in my 26 years of coaching high school track and field.”
Jones and Grant each signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in track and field on scholarship at the University of Miami 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 high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, 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.
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