Peabody-Burns High School athlete Lauren Pickens has been nominated by KWCH television as one of four high school track standouts in the running for a “Catchy” award as female track athlete for spring 2011 and best performance of the year.

The Catchy awards are an offshoot of the KWCH sports program “Catch It Kansas,” which features information about high school teams and athletes on its website.

Catch It Kansas staff developed the Catchy awards to give athletes and fans input into post-season honors. With coaches and media selecting for league, area, and state awards, the Catchys are something of a “peoples’ choice” award. Voting is done at the CatchItKansas.com website through July 31. There are 120 nominees in 29 categories including best athlete in every sport.

School size runs the gamut from 1A to 6A, pitting student athletes against the best no matter what size school district they attend.

This is the third year for the Catchys. People can vote by going to the Catch It Kansas site and clicking on the Catchys banner. The list of nominees will come up and the voter can click on his or her choice. The voter will have to vote for one nominee in each category.

A committee from the television station reviews all high school sports for the previous year and makes the nominations for each award. The public does the voting and KWCH will announce the winners after the July 31 deadline.

Pickens, a spring graduate of PBHS, took first place at the state track meet in the 2A 100-, 200-, and 400-meter runs for the fourth consecutive year, the first to ever do this at the state meet.

Darren and Tammy Pickens of Peabody are her parents.