Jessica Beard & Ngoni Makusha win The Bowerman...
Beard won NCAA crowns both indoors and out in the 400 meters and 4×400 relay in 2011. Makusha joined Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens in winning the 100 meter-long jump double at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
Beard (Euclid, Ohio) became the just the third female in NCAA Division I history, and first since 1999, to win both 400 national titles in the same year and run on both winning 4×400 relays at the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor Championships. Beard, a four-time Big 12 indoor 400-meter champ, recorded the world’s fastest time over the 400-meter distance indoors with a 50.79 clocking to win the national crown. Outdoors, Beard clocked 51.10 for the NCAA win and split 49.13 for the Aggies as anchor of the NCAA-winning 4×400 relay.
Makusha (Seke, Zimbabwe) won NCAA outdoor titles in the 100 meters and long jump, joining Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, and Michigan’s DeHart Hubbard as only the fourth man in NCAA Division I history to claim such a double at a single championship. Makusha also claimed the NCAA long jump title during the indoor season, becoming the first since 2006 to sweep the event’s two titles (Arturs Abolins, Nebraska). The Seminole notched a third NCAA outdoor championship title as second-leg of 4×100-meter relay.
Washington State's Jeshua Anderson (above. with WSU coaches Debra Farwell & Mark Macdonald /photo by Paul Merca), the three time NCAA champion in the 400 hurdles, was one of the three men's finalists for this award along with Florida's Christian Taylor, which is track & field's equivalent of football's Heisman Trophy.
Longtime Seattle Pacific coach Ken Foreman was also inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame at tonight's presentation.
Here is Anderson's conversation with emcee Lewis Johnson of NBC/Universal Sports.
NOTE: The USTFCCCA contributed to this report.
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