Gatorade announced Jake Liebert of Wando High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade South Carolina Boys Cross Country Player of the Year. Liebert is the first Gatorade South Carolina Boys Cross Country Player of the Year to be chosen from Wando.
The 6-foot, 130-pound senior broke the tape at the SCHSL Class AAAAA state meet this past season, winning by more than 27 seconds in a time of 15:19.79 and leading Warriors to third place as a team. Top-five finishes at two of the nation's premier invitationals-the Great American Cross Country Festival and the Southern Showcase-plus a First Team All-Region performance at the Foot Locker South Championships were among Liebert's season highlights. He took 11th at the national Foot Locker championships to earn Third Team All-America honors.
A guitar enthusiast who also enjoys cooking in his free time, Liebert has volunteered locally as a youth coach for the Mt. Pleasant Track Club. He has also mentored the community's middle school population in the sport of cross country as well as track and field.
Liebert has maintained a 3.66 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to run on scholarship at University of Tennessee this fall.
Liebert joins recent Gatorade South Carolina Boys Cross Country Players of the Year Knox Young (2022-23, Greenville High School), Sam Rich (2021-22 & 2020-21, Catawba Ridge High School) and Coen Roberts (2019-20, Greer High School), among the state's list of former award winners.