Cherry Creek’s Riley Stewart named Colorado Gatorade girls cross country runner of the year for third time

CHICAGO – This past fall, Cherry Creek’s Riley Stewart cemented herself as one of the most dominant runners in state history as she captured her third 5A girls cross country title.

Now she has some more hardware to add to the trophy case, as she was named the Gatorade Colorado girls cross country runner of the year on Monday. It is her third-straight time being honored as the girls cross country runner of the year by Gatorade, and her fourth overall accolade as she was named the Gatorade Colorado track and field athlete of the year last year as well.

“Riley has not been beaten by a Coloradan in a cross country or track race since the spring of her freshman year,” said Ethan Dusto, head coach at Cherry Creek. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a string of success quite like Riley’s.”

The 5-foot-11 senior raced to the Class 5A individual state championship this past season with a time of 17:20.9, leading the Bruins to second place as a team. Stewart also won the Region 1 championship and broke the tape at the Eastbay Midwest Regional Championships in 16:54.4. She crossed the line in fifth at the national Eastbay Cross Country Championships and took third at the national Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships in 16:28.4, earning All-American honors at both events.

A member of her school’s Student Athlete Leadership Council, Stewart has volunteered as a Central City Opera House Association Flower Girl, part of an initiative to support the association’s community-outreach programs promoting cultural and artistic activities throughout the state. She has also donated her time to trail-restoration projects performed by the Cherry Creek XC program.

Stewart has maintained a 4.11 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at Stanford University this fall.

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 Stewart as Colorado’s best high school girls cross country player. She is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year award to be announced in February.

Three-time winner Stewart joins recent Gatorade Colorado Girls Cross Country Players of the Year Quinn McConnell (2018-19, Peak to Peak Charter School), and Jenna Fitzsimmons (2017-18, Mountain Vista High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.