Perrin is Gatorade XC runner of year
<p>Zach Perrin runs in the Flathead Invitational at Kidsports Complex. September 10, 2011.</p>
Flathead High School senior Zach Perrin was honored as the Gatorade Montana Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year Thursday.
The 6-foot senior raced to the Class AA individual state championship this past season with a time of 15:08.7, leading the Braves to fourth place as a team. Perrin captured eighth place at the Foot Locker West Regional championships in 15:47 and finished 10th at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 15:32.
He is the first Gatorade Montana Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year from Flathead High School and the reigning Gatorade Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the race course, distinguishes Perrin as Montana’s best high school boys cross country runner and makes him a finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year award to be announced later this month.
Perrin has maintained a B average in the classroom and has served as part of his school’s student government. A member of Flathead’s concert choir, he has volunteered on behalf of his church, as a youth athletic instructor and by running 50 miles in a single day to raise money for a young girl suffering from cancer.
“He is very coachable, works hard and knows what his limits are,” Flathead cross country coach Paul Jorgensen said. “Zach has been Flathead’s top cross country runner for the last three years, and he’s the top cross country runner in the state of Montana.”
Perrin has not decided on a college destination
The last area runner to win the boys award was Whitefish’s Drew Coco in 2008-09.
Bigfork’s Makena Morley won the girls award.