Jefferson’s Avery Rich and Kennedy’s Allison Sheehan are this year’s Athena Award winners. The award is presented each year to outstanding female senior athletes from high schools across the metro area. Award winners will be honored at the Minneapolis Athena Banquet on May 1.

Rich participates in cross country running, Nordic ski, and track and field. Her Nordic ski career is highlighted by a second place finish at state this year, a 9th place state finish as a junior, two MVP awards, four all-conference honors and two academic all-state honors. In cross country she was team captain for two years, made four appearances at state and earned three all-conference, one academic all-conference and one all-state honors. Rich has also competed at state in track and field, earning one all-conference and two academic all-state honors. She plans to major in environmental engineering and continue to ski at Bates College.

Sheehan participates in volleyball, basketball, softball, flag football, National Honor Society and Student Government. She is a leader, serving as captain of the volleyball, basketball and softball teams. Sheehan’s accolades include four academic letters, all-conference honors and multiple letters across all four of her sports, academic all-conference in volleyball, first team all-section defense  in basketball, quarterback of the year in flag football, ExCEL award nominee and a recipient of a BPS Senior Achievement award. Sheehan plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she earned a softball scholarship, while majoring in human biology with an emphasis on exercise science.