Who received my 2018 Bowerman votes...
Thursday night, the USTFCCCA will present the 2018 Bowerman Award to the country’s most outstanding male and female collegiate track and field athlete of this season.
Since the beginning of this award in 2010, I’ve been honored to be one of the national voting media members, and take this seriously. Though I’m based in the Pacific Northwest, I try not to let any conference, regional, or fan/message board biases sway who I pick.
All voting members of The Bowerman, which includes past winners, national and regional media personnel, and track & field statisticians, received their ballots from the USTFCCCA shortly after the NCAA championships, and submitted them in July.
The criteria the USTFCCCA puts out is very specific:
“Athletes’ performances during the NCAA indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons shall be considered. An athlete need not have competed in both seasons to be eligible for the award.
“Performances that occur outside the NCAA seasons of indoor track & field and outdoor track & field should not be considered. The performance window for the purposes of The Bowerman runs from December 1 of the preceding year through the respective division’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the year in which the award is given.”
In the interest of being transparent to all of you, I am publishing my Bowerman ballot.
I saw all six Bowerman Award finalists compete in person at least once this season at the NCAA outdoor championships, though I did see USC’s Rai Benjamin and Michael Norman, along with Arizona State’s Maggie Ewen compete multiple times this season, notably at the MPSF indoor championships in Seattle and the Pac-12 championships at Stanford. I was the stadium announcer for Ewen’s collegiate record throw in the shot put at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson on April 28th.
MEN
Honestly, I was torn on this one between teammates Rai Benjamin (left/photo by Paul Merca) and Michael Norman from USC.
Benjamin set a collegiate record of 47.02 in the finals of the 400 hurdles at the NCAA championships, tying the great Edwin Moses for second on the all-time world list, while Norman set the collegiate record in the 400 of 43.61 at the NCAA outdoors
Both ran several sub-45 second splits on USC’s 4 x 400 relays indoors and outdoors, helping the Trojans to national championships. In both national championship titles, the Trojans set collegiate records. The Trojans set a world indoor best in the 4 x 400 at the NCAAs of 3:00.77.
Norman set a world indoor record in the 400 of 44.52, while Benjamin was third in the 200 at the NCAA indoors.
Just by a very slim margin, I thought Benjamin’s 47.02 in the 400 hurdles was better than Norman’s world indoor 400 record and his collegiate outdoor 400 record (the IAAF scoring tables rate Benjamin’s 47.02 at 1283 points, and Norman’s outdoor CR 400 of 43.61 at 1278 points; Norman’s 400 indoor world record of 44.52 is only worth 1277 points on the IAAF indoor scoring tables), thus he got my vote.
The other Bowerman finalist, Grant Holloway of Florida, won both the indoor and outdoor short hurdles championships. He became the only man in world history to go sub-13.20 in the 110 hurdles and long jump at least 8.10m (26-7) outdoors – and did so within the span of 28 hours. That came after he was just the second man to go sub-7.50 and farther than 8.00m (26-3) indoors.
Holloway set a collegiate record in the 60 hurdles of 7.47.
WOMEN
In my mind, the vote was a little more clearcut.
I went with Georgia’s horizontal jumps specialist Keturah Orji (left/photo by Mike Scott) over (in order) Arizona State thrower Maggie Ewen, and Kentucky hurdler Sydney McLaughlin.
Orji became just the third woman in NCAA DI history to complete the long jump-triple jump double outdoors and won yet another indoor triple jump crown with a meet record effort.
She bettered her own American and collegiate record in the triple jump to 14.53m (47-8). During the outdoor season, she improved her collegiate record by 3.75 inches to 14.62m (47-11.75).
Ewen won three individual NCAA crowns in 2018, taking both shot put titles, and the discus title on a clutch sixth round throw. She broke her own collegiate record in the hammer, throwing 244-6 (74.53m), then grabbed the collegiate shot put record with a toss of 63-10.75 (19.46m) at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, shortly after being upset in the hammer at the same meet by Brooke Andersen of Northern Arizona.
2106 US Olympian Sydney McLaughlin set a collegiate record in the 400 hurdles, running 52.75 at the SEC championship meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The fan voting for The Bowerman went to Holloway and Ewen.
ESPN3 and the ESPN app will have live coverage of The Bowerman presentation from San Antonio on Thursday beginning at 5 pm Pacific (8 pm Eastern).
NOTE: The USTFCCCA contributed to this report. The IAAF provided statistical data.
Since the beginning of this award in 2010, I’ve been honored to be one of the national voting media members, and take this seriously. Though I’m based in the Pacific Northwest, I try not to let any conference, regional, or fan/message board biases sway who I pick.
All voting members of The Bowerman, which includes past winners, national and regional media personnel, and track & field statisticians, received their ballots from the USTFCCCA shortly after the NCAA championships, and submitted them in July.
The criteria the USTFCCCA puts out is very specific:
“Athletes’ performances during the NCAA indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons shall be considered. An athlete need not have competed in both seasons to be eligible for the award.
In the interest of being transparent to all of you, I am publishing my Bowerman ballot.
I saw all six Bowerman Award finalists compete in person at least once this season at the NCAA outdoor championships, though I did see USC’s Rai Benjamin and Michael Norman, along with Arizona State’s Maggie Ewen compete multiple times this season, notably at the MPSF indoor championships in Seattle and the Pac-12 championships at Stanford. I was the stadium announcer for Ewen’s collegiate record throw in the shot put at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson on April 28th.
MEN
Benjamin set a collegiate record of 47.02 in the finals of the 400 hurdles at the NCAA championships, tying the great Edwin Moses for second on the all-time world list, while Norman set the collegiate record in the 400 of 43.61 at the NCAA outdoors
Both ran several sub-45 second splits on USC’s 4 x 400 relays indoors and outdoors, helping the Trojans to national championships. In both national championship titles, the Trojans set collegiate records. The Trojans set a world indoor best in the 4 x 400 at the NCAAs of 3:00.77.
Norman set a world indoor record in the 400 of 44.52, while Benjamin was third in the 200 at the NCAA indoors.
Just by a very slim margin, I thought Benjamin’s 47.02 in the 400 hurdles was better than Norman’s world indoor 400 record and his collegiate outdoor 400 record (the IAAF scoring tables rate Benjamin’s 47.02 at 1283 points, and Norman’s outdoor CR 400 of 43.61 at 1278 points; Norman’s 400 indoor world record of 44.52 is only worth 1277 points on the IAAF indoor scoring tables), thus he got my vote.
The other Bowerman finalist, Grant Holloway of Florida, won both the indoor and outdoor short hurdles championships. He became the only man in world history to go sub-13.20 in the 110 hurdles and long jump at least 8.10m (26-7) outdoors – and did so within the span of 28 hours. That came after he was just the second man to go sub-7.50 and farther than 8.00m (26-3) indoors.
Holloway set a collegiate record in the 60 hurdles of 7.47.
WOMEN
I went with Georgia’s horizontal jumps specialist Keturah Orji (left/photo by Mike Scott) over (in order) Arizona State thrower Maggie Ewen, and Kentucky hurdler Sydney McLaughlin.
Orji became just the third woman in NCAA DI history to complete the long jump-triple jump double outdoors and won yet another indoor triple jump crown with a meet record effort.
She bettered her own American and collegiate record in the triple jump to 14.53m (47-8). During the outdoor season, she improved her collegiate record by 3.75 inches to 14.62m (47-11.75).
Ewen won three individual NCAA crowns in 2018, taking both shot put titles, and the discus title on a clutch sixth round throw. She broke her own collegiate record in the hammer, throwing 244-6 (74.53m), then grabbed the collegiate shot put record with a toss of 63-10.75 (19.46m) at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, shortly after being upset in the hammer at the same meet by Brooke Andersen of Northern Arizona.
2106 US Olympian Sydney McLaughlin set a collegiate record in the 400 hurdles, running 52.75 at the SEC championship meet in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The fan voting for The Bowerman went to Holloway and Ewen.
ESPN3 and the ESPN app will have live coverage of The Bowerman presentation from San Antonio on Thursday beginning at 5 pm Pacific (8 pm Eastern).
NOTE: The USTFCCCA contributed to this report. The IAAF provided statistical data.
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