MORGANTOWN — Irene Riggs is a rising junior and she will already have two banners hanging inside Morgantown High, each with a Gatorade logo front and center.
Earlier this year, Riggs was named the Gatorade West Virginia Girls’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year after she won the Class AAA state title.
Now, she followed that up with another impressive campaign during the track season, winning three state championships in the 3,200-meter, 1,600m and 800m runs, as well as a top-3 finish in the 4x400m relay, helping the Mohigans finish second in the team standings.
Riggs was the Class AAA girls’ high point winner, and throughout the year, continued to break records at MHS and in the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, and ended up winning the Gatorade West Virginia Girls’ Track and Field Runner of the Year.
“It was really exciting,” Riggs said. “I honestly did not know if I was going to have the honor of earning this award due to the wide variety of talented athletes with sprinter, throwers, jumpers, I was competing against. It feels great to have this to close my season with.”
Making a name for herself as one of, if not the best, distance runners in the state, Riggs seemingly is at the top of her game, but as great as her sophomore season has been, she is not settling.
“I really want to focus on keeping our team strong and healthy, while pushing us to be the best competitors we can be,” she said. “I also want to use this season which will hopefully be filled with more normalcy to race other strong runners out of West Virginia.”
With so many honors from Gatorade piling up, Riggs said her favorite flavor is Fruit Punch, followed by Cool Blue and Glacier Cherry.
