Gatorade 2019 - 2020: Player of the Year

Girls Cross Country - Vermont

athletes playing Girls Cross Country
The POY Logo
GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Ava Thurston

Distance Runner
HARWOOD UNION HS
MORETOWN, VERMONT
SOPHOMORE
Height: 5-FOOT-5
Press Release

Peak Performance

1st - 19:19.9

Division 2 state championship

1st

Manchester Invitational

5th

New England Championship
“In my 45 years of coaching, I’ve never had an athlete as gifted, hard-working and unselfish as Ava. She’s a strong athlete who continues to improve, and her best is yet to come.”
John Kerrigan
Head Coach - Harwood coach
excellence star

Athletic Excellence

The 5-foot-5 sophomore raced to the Division 2 individual state championship this past season with a time of 19:19.9, leading the Highlanders to the state title as a team. Thurston also won the Manchester Invitational, the Burlington Invitational, the U-32 Invitational and the NVAC Mountain Division championships. She also took fifth at the New England Cross Country Championships.

a graduation cap

Academic Achievement

Thurston has maintained a 3.74 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school this fall.

first place ribbon

Exemplary Character

A Nordic skiing standout, Thurston has volunteered locally as part of her school’s Refugee Outreach Club and its student leadership team.