CHICAGO (June 21, 2012) — In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, today announced Jonathan Jones of Carrollton High School as its 2011-12 Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year. Jones is the first Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year to be chosen from Carrollton 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 Jones as Georgia’s best high school boys track & field athlete. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year award to be announced in June, Jones joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Ryan Hall (1999-01, Big Bear HS, Calif.), Meb Keflezighi (1993-94, San Diego HS, Calif.), Derek Jeter (1991-92, Kalamazoo HS, Mich.), Candace Parker (2001-02, Naperville Central HS, Ill.), Mark Sanchez (2004-05, Mission Viejo HS, Calif.) and Lolo Jones (1997-98, Roosevelt HS, Ia.).
The 5-foot-10 senior won three individual state titles this spring and led the Trojans to the Class 3A state championship as a team. Jones won the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 13.69 seconds, captured the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 37.47 and leapt 23 feet, 11 inches to win the long jump.
Jones has maintained a 3.78 GPA in the classroom. He has volunteered locally on behalf of an area soup kitchen and youth track programs.
“Jonathan has such fantastic athletic ability,” said Carrollton coach Craig Musselwhite. “He’s just a natural hurdler and jumper, and to me a good hurdler is the best athlete there is. He’s also a kid who you never had to worry about in the classroom.”
Jones has signed a National Letter of Intent to play football on scholarship at Auburn University 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 ESPNHS and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, 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.
Jones joins recent Gatorade Georgia Boys Track & Field Athletes of the Year O'Neal Wanliss (2010-11, Holy Innocents Episcopal School), David Smith (2009-10, Lovejoy), Ken Gilstrap (2008-09, Miller Grove), and Christian Taylor (2007-08, Sandy Creek) among the state’s list of former award winners.
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