Servin named Vermont Boys Cross Country Player of the Year
In its 38th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Matthew Servin of Champlain Valley Union High School is the 2022-23 Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross Country Player of the Year.
Servin is the second Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Champlain Valley Union High School. Tyler Marshall won for the 2016-17 school year.
CVU girls have won the award three times — Alice Larson 2018-19, Sophia Gorman 2015-2016 and Autumn Eastman 2013-2014.
Matthew Servin of Charlotte was named Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. He plans to attend Bowdoin College in the fall and compete in cross country and track.
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 Servin as Vermont’s best high school boys cross country player. He is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Cross Country Player of the Year award to be announced this month.
“Matthew exemplifies the spirit of this prestigious award,” said Nicole Gorman, Champlain Valley Union High cross-country coach. “He is an outstanding student, athlete and person.”
The 6-foot, 150-pound senior raced to victory at the Division 1 state championships this past season with a time of 16:36.7, a margin of 29 seconds ahead of his next-closest competitor, pacing the Redhawks to second place as a team.
Servin said he was honored to win the Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross County Player of the Year Award and wouldn’t have without his family, coaches and teammates: “I love running and I hope to be lucky enough to continue doing it for as long as possible.”
Servin took ninth at the New England Championships and clocked a personal-best 15:37.10 to win the Burlington Invitational. He crossed the line sixth at the Nike Cross Northeast Regionals in 15:37.3, one place out of qualifying for nationals.
Servin has volunteered locally as part of the Environmental Action Club, the Awareness Change Training program and with CVU’s Leadership Council.
“Champlain Valley Union senior Matthew Servin effectively ‘ran the table’ in going unbeaten against in-state rivals this past season,” said PrepCalTrack editor Rich Gonzalez. “The biggest highlights for the Bowdoin College commit came in winning the Division 1 state meet and then crossing the line sixth at Nike Cross Northeast Regionals.”
Servin has maintained an unweighted 4.14 GPA in the classroom. He will attend Bowdoin College this fall, where he will compete in cross country and track.
Servin joins recent Gatorade Vermont Boys Cross Country Players of the Year Evan Thornton-Sherman (2021-22, St. Johnsbury Academy), Brady Martisus (2020-21, Essex High School), and Henry Farrington (2019-20 & 2018-19, Essex High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Being a Gatorade Player of the Year means paying it forward for the next generation. Through Gatorade’s Play it Forward initiative, every Player of the Year receives a grant to give to one of Gatorade’s social impact partners, supporting Gatorade’s ambition to fuel the future of sport. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.