Murrieta's Michael Norman Named Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year

Photo: Michael Norman, left, of Vista Murrieta High School, is surprised with the 2014-15 Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year trophy by Gatorade Marketing Manager Keri Lockett, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 in Murrieta, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence as well as high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. Photo/Gatorade, Susan Goldman
--

A student at Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta was today named the 2014-15 Gatorade National Boys Track & normanField Athlete of the Year.

A national advisory panel comprised of sport-specific experts and sports journalists helped select Michael Norman from among more than 580,000 high school boys track & field athletes nationwide.

The award “recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field,” according to the Gatorade Co.

The company is in its 30th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, in collaboration with USA TODAY High School Sports.

Norman, who will soon begin his senior year at Vista Murrieta, is now a finalist for the Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, to be presented at a special ceremony prior to the ESPY Awards in July.

“Michael embodies everything we look for in a Gatorade Player of the Year recipient,” said Gatorade Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley. “In addition to being one of the best high school track & field athletes in the country, Michael has excelled in the classroom and been a positive influence in his community. He is a role model for younger student-athletes to look up to and we are excited to see all the things he will accomplish in the future.”

The 6-foot, 160-pound junior sprinter won the 200-meter dash with a state-record time of 20.30 seconds and the 400 in a state-record 45.19 at the state meet this past season, clocking the nation’s No. 1 times among prep competitors in 2015 at the time of his selection.

Norman’s 400-meter finish marked the fastest time ever recorded in the event at a meet sanctioned by the National Federation of State High School Associations, and both sprints ranked among the 10 best performances in U.S. prep history.

The Press Enterprise’s returning All-Area Boys Track Athlete of the Year, he also anchored the third-place 4x400-meter relay quartet that crossed the line in 3:14.81 at the state meet, helping to clinch a state team title for the Broncos.

Norman has maintained a 3.41 GPA in the classroom, donated his time as a youth track instructor and volunteered locally in shoe and canned food drives for the needy. He’s also donated his time on behalf of the Special Olympics and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

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.

--City News Service