24 Jun 2015 Cabot High's Lexi Weeks receives Gatorade honor
In its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports, recently announced Lexi Weeks of Cabot High School as its 2014-15 Gatorade Arkansas Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.
Weeks is the first Gatorade Arkansas Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Cabot 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 track, distinguishes Weeks as Arkansas’s best high school girls track and field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Weeks joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Allyson Felix (2001-02, Los Angeles Baptist, Calif.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo High School, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central High School, Ill.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy, N.Y.), Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo High School, Calif.), Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt High School, Iowa) and Bianca Knight (2006-07, Ridgeland High School, Miss.).
The 5-foot-6 senior pole vaulter, hurdler, jumper and sprinter won three individual state championships this spring, leading the Panthers to a second-place finish as a team at the Class 7A state meet. Weeks won the pole vault with a clearance of 14 feet, the long jump by soaring 17 feet, 7.25 inches and the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.97 seconds. She also won two individual titles at the Meet of Champions, capturing first-place in the 400-meter dash in 56.96 and all-class gold in the pole vault with a clearance of 14 feet, 2 inches, which ranked as the nation’s No. 1 performance among prep competitors in 2015.
Weeks has maintained a 4.34 GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society, she has volunteered locally as a Bible study group leader and as a youth cheerleading coach.
“Lexi Weeks is truly an amazing girl,” said Brett Unger, head coach at Har-Ber High. “She is the national leader in the pole vault but what’s more impressive is all the events she competed in and how she rallied her team to a runner-up finish at the state meet. She is a true class act and a brilliant girl.”
Weeks has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in track and field on an athletic scholarship at the University of Arkansas 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 and 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.
Weeks joins recent Gatorade Arkansas Girls Track & Field Athletes of the Year Payton Stumbaugh (2013-14, 2012-13 and 2011-12, Har-Ber High School), Maggie Montoya (2010–11, Rogers High School), Grace Heymsfield (2009-10 and 2008-09, Elkins), Stephanie Foreman (2007-08, Lake Hamilton) and Natasha Shockey (2006-07, Russellville) among the state’s list of former award winners.
To keep up to date on the latest happenings, become a fan of Gatorade Player of the Year on Facebook and follow on Twitter. For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information, a complete list of past winners and the announcement of the Gatorade National Player of the Year, visit gatorade.com/poy.
