Dalton Daum of Butte High School was named the Gatorade Montana Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior sprinter won a pair of individual state championships this spring and led the Bulldogs to a ninth-place finish as a team at the Class AA state meet. Daum broke the tape in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.81 seconds as well as the 200, in 21.67. The state’s returning Gatorade Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year, he accounted for 28 of his team’s 32 points at the state meet and became just the second athlete in Montana history to repeat as state champion in the sprints in consecutive seasons.
Daum has maintained a 3.82 GPA in the classroom. A member of the National Honor Society, he has volunteered locally on behalf of multiple area food and clothing drives to benefit families in need. He has also donated his time as a youth football and track & field coach.
“Dalton Daum has great top-end speed,” said Butte High head coach Arie Grey. “His drive phase in the 100-meter dash is what separates him from the competition.”
Daum has signed a National Letter of Intent to play football on scholarship at the University of Montana 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 and field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.
The selection process is administered by the Gatorade high school sports leadership team in partnership with USA TODAY High School Sports, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.
Two-time winner Daum joins Gatorade Montana boys track and field athletes of the year Matt Tokarz (2012-13, Flathead High School), Zach Perrin (2011-12, Flathead High School), Scotty Koehler-Owens (2010–11 & 2009-10, Billings Senior High School), Chris Wilson (2008–09, C.M. Russell), Josh Pelczar (2007-08, Billings West), and Seth Grossman (2006-07, Flathead High School) among the state’s list of former award winners.