Biancamano Girls Gatorade T&F AOY For Mississippi


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LONG BEACH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE NAMED GATORADE MISSISSIPPI GIRLS TRACK & FIELD PLAYER OF THE YEAR

CHICAGO (June 25, 2020) - In its 35th year of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Brooklyn Biancamano of Long Beach High School as its 2019-20 Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Biancamano is the second Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Long Beach 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 Biancamano as Mississippi's best high school girls track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Biancamano joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa), Allyson Felix (2002-03, Los Angeles Baptist High School, Calif.), Robert Griffin III (2006-07, Copperas Cove High School, Texas), Grant Fisher (2013-14 & 2014-15, Grand Blanc High School, Mich.) and Candace Hill (2014-15, Rockdale County High School, Ga.).

The state's returning Gatorade Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year, two-time Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year and 5-foot-4 sophomore was undefeated in an abbreviated 2020 outdoor season. She broke the tape in the 800 at the Gaston Hewes Relays, the Olan Welch Invitational and the Pass Christian Season Opener. She also won the 1600 at each of those first two meets, and captured the 400 at Gaston Hewes. During the 2020 indoor campaign, she took second in the 1600 at the Last Chance Invitational, clocking a personal-best 5:08.23, which ranked as the nation's No. 100 time among prep competitors in 2020. Her seventh-place finish in the mile (5:03.78) at the UK High School Invitational ranked No. 79. In the 2019 outdoor season, she swept the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter events at the 5A state meet, leading the Bearcats to the team title.

Conversant in American Sign Language (ASL), Biancamano has served as a member of the Long Beach Mayor's Youth Council and her school's Junior Civitan club, and she has volunteered as a mentor with the Heritage Christian Academy (Picayune) Cross Country Camp. She has also donated her time on behalf of a baseball program for physically and intellectually challenged youth as well as coastal clean-up efforts and the Quarles Elementary School Field Day. "Brooklyn is knocking on the door of becoming Mississippi's most decorated Gatorade Player of the Year award-winner as a runner," said Erik Boal, an editor for DyeStat. "She's now matched Starkville's Kate Mattox (2013-17 in cross country) with four and trails only Pass Christian's Cory McGee (2007-10 in cross country and track), who won six times, went on to become a 10-time All-American at the University of Florida and took third in the mile at the 2019 USA Track & Field Indoor Championships. Brooklyn PR'd in four events indoors and outdoors in 2020, and her sweep of the 800 through 3200 at the 2019 state track & field state championships gives her a pretty impressive resume."

Biancamano has maintained a weighted 5.34 GPA on a 4.0 scale in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school 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 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.

Two-time winner Biancamano joins recent Gatorade Mississippi Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Asia Poe (2017-18, Madison Central High School), Demi Washington (2016-17, Clinton High School), Monica Mosley (2015-16 & 2014-15, Clinton High School), and Demi Washington (2013-14, Clinton High School) among the state's list of former award winners.

Since the program's inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visitwww.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/GatoradePOYor follow us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/Gatorade.