The senior distance runner is the fourth ever chosen from Bishop Hendricken
CHICAGO, IL (February 11, 2019) – In its 34th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, today announced Jack McMahon ’19 of Bishop Hendricken High School as its 2018-19 Gatorade Rhode Island Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. McMahon is the fourth Gatorade Rhode Island Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year to be chosen from Bishop Hendricken 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 McMahon as Rhode Island’s best high school boys cross country runner. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced in February, McMahon joins an elite alumni association of past state award-winners in 12 sports, including Lukas Verzbicas (2010-11, 2009-10 Carl Sandburg High School, Orland Park High School, Ill.), Donn Cabral (2007-08, Glastonbury High School, Glastonbury, Conn.) and Chris Derrick (2007-08, Neuqua Valley High School, Naperville, Ill.).
The 5-foot-10, 120-pound senior finished second at the state meet this past season with a time of 15:40.54, leading the Hawks to the state team title. McMahon took fifth at the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional championships, then crossed the line 45th at the NXN Final, helping Hendricken finish fourth nationally as a team.
McMahon has volunteered locally with McAuley Ministries and at youth track meets in addition to donating his time to multiple community-service initiatives through his church youth group. “Jack McMahon exemplifies a team leader and was the most consistent runner in Rhode Island,” said Paul Tetreault, head coach of North Kingstown High. “Hendricken had a terrific team this year, and the heart and soul of that team was Jack McMahon.”
McMahon has maintained a 3.31 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in cross country and track and field on scholarship at Davidson College in North Carolina 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. From the 12 national winners, one male and one female athlete are each named Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year. In all, 607 athletes are honored each year. McMahon joins Gatorade Rhode Island Boys Cross Country Runners of the Year Jeffery Pedersen (2017-18, East Greenwich High School), D.J. Principe (2016-17, 2015-16 & 2014-15, La Salle Academy), and Colin Tierney (2013-14, Bishop Hendricken High School) as athletes who have won the cross country award since its inception in 2007.
As a part of Gatorade’s cause marketing platform “Play it Forward,” McMahon has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national youth sports organization of his choosing. He is also eligible to submit an essay to win one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants for the organization of choice, which will be announced throughout the year.
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.
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Contacts
[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]For Jack McMahon ’19 & Bishop Hendricken:
Michele King
Director of Communications
401.739.3450, ext. 131
mking@hendricken.com[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]For Gatorade Player of the Year:
Kisa Mugwanya
FleishmanHillard
312.729.3670
GatoradePOYQuestions@Fleishman.com[/su_column][/su_row]