Northern Durham senior Blake Williams of Northern High School is the 2010-11 Gatorade North Carolina Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.
The 5-foot-7 senior won the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A with a course-record time of 15:29.38.
Williams placed second at the Foot Locker South Regional championships in 14:55.00 and finished 15th at the national Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 15:35.00, earning All-American status in the process.
Williams has maintained a 4.12 weighted GPA in the classroom and is the Northern senior class president. A member of the National Honor Society, he has donated his time as a swimming and running instructor.
“Blake is by far the hardest working student-athlete at Northern High,” Northern High head coach Blake Rahn said in a Gatorade release. “He strives for the same excellence in the classroom that he does in his cross country and track events. He is a self-motivated young man who is determined to push himself to become the very best. He also strives to make his peers better individually and to motivate his teammates to be the best. He is a remarkable athlete, but an even better individual.”
Williams has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship at the University of North Carolina this fall.
