Glacier's Hill receives Gatorade honor

Glacier High School senior Simon Hill was named the Gatorade Montana Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year on Monday.

Hill, the younger brother of Montana’s 2014-15 Gatorade girls cross country runner of the year Annie Hill, won the AA state meet this past October in 15:50.69. He was also the top Montana finisher at the annual 2019 Mountain West Classic when he took fourth place at the Missoula meet in late September.

According to a Gatorade Player of the Year program press release, Hill is the first Gatorade Montana Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year to be selected from Glacier. This is the second straight season that a Kalispell runner has received the honor — Flathead’s Ben Perrin won the award last year.

Hill has maintained a 4.0 grade point average, and ranks No. 1 in his class according to the release. He was also a 2018 speech and debate champion, owns his own lawn mowing business, and has volunteered as youth running coach.

He has signed a national letter of intent to run on scholarship at Montana.

“There were quite a few boys running up there with Simon this year, but what really separated him from the rest at the end of the day was his consistency,” said Sara Lord, Billings Senior coach. “He really capitalized on his prior training and racing experiences to run top performances were after week.”

He is now a finalist for the national Gatorade award.