West Newsmagazine 3-6-24

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Barnard named Gatorade
Missouri Player of the Year
March 6, 2024
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
I SPORTS I 29
Take care of your money
so your money can
take care of you.
Lafayette senior Natalie Barnard ran away with the Class 5 state championship last fall in
cross country. For her accomplishment, Barnard has been named the 2023-24 Gatorade
Missouri Girls Cross Country Player of the Year.
By WARREN MAYES
Lafayette senior Natalie Barnard found
out she earned a prestigious award in an
unusual way.
Barnard has been named the 2023-24
Gatorade Missouri Girls Cross Country
Player of the Year.
“I found out that I was Gatorade runner
of the year on the morning of a snow day
a couple weeks ago when I was scrolling
through Instagram,” Barnard said.
The 5-foot-6 senior broke the tape at the
Missouri Class 5 cross-country championships
last fall in Columbia. She clocked
a new Gans Creek course record time of
17 minutes, 12.70 seconds, finishing more
than a minute ahead of the rest of the field.
“I was super excited to see that I was
Gatorade runner of the year and the first
person I told was my dad who was sitting
nearby when I was eating breakfast,”
Barnard said. “He instantly posted it to all
of his social media platforms because he
couldn’t contain himself.”
Lancers coach Jill Harmon was excited
as well.
“Natalie is 100 percent deserving of this
award,” Harmon said. “If you look at some
of the previous winners and their accomplishments,
Natalie falls right in line. What
Gatorade looks for is a student-athlete who
performs both on the field and in the classroom.
Natalie excels at both.”
Harmon along with her assistant coaches
and Lafayette athletic director Jon Sumner
submitted a nomination for Barnard back
in November. At the end of December,
Harmon received word that Barnard was a
formal candidate for the award and had to
complete a lengthy application as the next
step in the process.
“Once that application was submitted in
early January, all we could do was sit and
wait,” Harmon said.
Barnard is the second Gatorade Missouri
Girls Cross Country Player of the Year to
be chosen from Lafayette. She joins former
Lancer Grace Tyson, who won the Gatorade
Missouri Girls Cross Country Player
of the Year previously last year.
“I think it’s super cool that we have had
a two-year streak of Gatorade player of
the year from Lafayette,” Barnard said. “It
shows how strong our distance program is
and our ability to rebound from losing talented
runners.”
Harmon agreed.
“This award is very prestigious and not
easy to win,” Harmon said. “I think it goes
to show how good Grace and Natalie were.
It also shows the depth of our squad. The
best in the state were able to push each
other each and every day at practice to new
levels. That kind of dedication and resilience
trickles down to the rest of the team.”
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.
Barnard was Missouri’s top high school
girl at both the Nike XC Town Invitational
and the Nike Cross Midwest Regional.
Barnard finished 16th overall in the latter
event.
She posted a 6-2 meet record in 2023,
and did not lose to an in-state runner. She
won the Class 5 District 1 title with a personal-best
time of 16:53.30.
“Natalie Barnard’s dominant performance
at the state meet coupled with
strong showings at a number of invitational
meets was more than enough to put her at
the top of the list of the state’s best prep
girls in 2023,” said Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack.
Barnard was pleased with her senior
See BARNARD, page 32
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