Gatorade today announced Ticora Gaskin of Westwood High School is the 2022-23 Gatorade South Carolina Girls Track & Field Player of the Year. Gaskin is the second Gatorade South Carolina Girls Track & Field Player of the Year to be chosen from Westwood High School.
The 5-foot-5 senior repeated as the Class AAAA long jump champion this past season and took second in the 200-meter dash along with seventh in the 100 to help the Redhawks earn a share of the team championship. Gaskin set a new state long jump record with her wind-legal leap of 20 feet, 3 inches at the state qualifier, which ranked No. 12 nationally among girls prep competitors in 2023. She was nearly a foot better than any other girls athlete in the state in the event and represents the first 20-foot prep jumper in South Carolina in nine years.
Gaskin is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Track & Field Player of the Year award to be announced in July.
Gaskin has served as an active member of local church ministries for years, including singing in youth and teen choirs and performing with the liturgical dance ministry. She has also volunteered with a soup kitchen in addition to serving as a teen usher, youth assistant teacher and Vacation Bible School. In addition, she has donated her time as a youth gymnastics coach.
Gaskin has maintained a 3.37 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete on scholarship at Campbell University 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.
Gaskin joins recent Gatorade South Carolina Girls Track & Field Players of the Year Brianna Rodriguez (2021-22, Westwood High School) and Jayla Jamison (2020-21, 2019-20, & 2018-19, Airport High School), among the state's list of former award winners.
