PRESS RELEASE | In its 39th year of honoring the nation's most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Kaselle Davis of Las Cruces High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade New Mexico Girls Track & Field Player of the Year. Davis is the first Gatorade New Mexico Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Las Cruces High School.
The award, which celebrates the nation's top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Davis as New Mexico's best high school girls track & field athlete. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Sanya Richards-Ross (2001-02, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Fla), Sydney McLaughlin (2016-17, 2015-16 & 2014-15, Union Catholic High School, N.J.) and Angelina Napoleon (2022-23, Allegany-Limestone Central School, N.Y.).
The 5-foot-5 junior sprinter/jumper broke two state records and set a class record in a third event this past season with her new standard of 54.13 seconds in the 400-meter dash representing the No. 45 time nationally among girls prep competitors this spring. Davis won four gold medals and shared in a relay bronze at the Class 5A state meet, leading the Bulldawgs to fifth place as a team. Her winning clearing in the high jump was a class-record 5 feet, 9 inches, which ranked No. 28 nationally. She scored a meet-high 29.5 points at states thanks to additional victories in the 100 and 200 dash events along with a third-place showing as the anchor of the 4x400 relay quartet. Her remaining state record came in the 200, where she clocked a 24.27 during state meet prelims.
Davis has volunteered locally on behalf of the Holy Temple Church of God and Christ in Alamogordo.
Davis has maintained a 3.66 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her senior year of high school this fall.
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. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.
Davis joins recent Gatorade New Mexico Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Jaiya Daniels (2022-23, Los Alamos High School), Yvonne Stinson (2021-22, Alamogordo High School), Ku'upualiliapihamekealoha "Lia" Pili (2020-21, Centennial High School) and Adriana Tatum (2019-20, Sandia High School), among the state's list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade's commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
