And my 2019 Bowerman Award votes go to...
Thursday night, the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) will present the 2019 Bowerman Award to the country’s most outstanding male and female collegiate track and field athlete of this season in Orlando, Florida in conjunction with the association's annual meeting.
Since 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 revealing who I gave my Bowerman vote to.
I saw all six Bowerman Award finalists compete in person at least once in 2019. That said, I missed the NCAA outdoor championships due to a conflict, and only saw them compete outside the collegiate season, either at the Toyota/USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, or the IAAF World Track & Field Championships in Doha, Qatar.
THE BOWERMAN ADVISORY BOARD CAN SEE EACH ATHLETE’S ENTIRE BODY OF WORK
Before I reveal who got my vote, I’m going to jump on my soapbox in response to various social media posts during the season stating that the Bowerman Advisory Board was wrong in picking the final three men and women (Mondo Duplantis of LSU, Grant Holloway of Florida, Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech; Janeek Brown of Arkansas, Yanis David of Florida, and Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU).
I will go on record to state that the Bowerman Advisory Board, led by Syracuse deputy athletics director Herman Frazier (1976 Olympic 4x400 relay gold medalist) and his committee do a pretty thorough job of evaluating the top collegiate track and field athletes from the time the indoor season begins in December all the way up to the NCAA outdoor championships in June.
His committee consists of many of the top collegiate administrators, national and regional media personnel, and track & field statisticians. In the case of media members and statisticians, many of those in the blue ribbon panel have probably forgotten more facts and statistics than what I know. I may disagree with some of these men and women, but I respect the hell out of them and the work they put in.
One thing the committee gets right consistently is that there’s no biases towards/against certain event groups. There is nothing in the rules and guidelines that state that certain event groups must be represented in the final three. That said, I found myself both laughing and shaking my head at the keyboard jockeys on social media suggesting that distance runner(s) should have been in the final three.
The Bowerman criteria clearly states that performances made during the cross country season are not considered. If the USTFCCCA (the coaches’ committee and sponsors of the Bowerman) and the panel decide to either create a separate award for cross country and/or allow cross country results to factor into the Bowerman voting, I wouldn’t have a problem as a voter with it.
Now that I’ve jumped off my soapbox, here we go:
MEN
Grant Holloway from Florida (left/photo by Paul Merca) clearly got my Bowerman vote over (in order) Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru and LSU’s Mondo Duplantis.
Holloway had a complete indoor and outdoor season, winning the NCAA title indoors in both the 60 dash and 60 hurdles, as well as winning the 110 hurdles outdoors and running a leg on the Gators’ 4 x 100 relay.
He set the American and collegiate record in the 60 hurdles, running 7.35 at the NCAA indoor championships in Birmingham, Alabama. Holloway broke one of the most vaunted collegiate track & field records, the 13.00 set by Renaldo Nehemiah of Maryland in 1979, when he won the NCAA outdoor title in Austin, Texas, running 12.98.
Oduduru won both the 100 and 200 at the NCAA championships outdoors, and won the indoor 200 title, so he got my second place vote.
Duplantis won the national title in the pole vault indoors, and set collegiate records both indoors (19-5/5.92m) and outdoors (19-8.25/6.00m).
Losing the NCAA outdoor title to Chris Nilsen of South Dakota cost Duplantis my second place vote, though I would have given him my second place vote if world championships results were factored in (he was second at worlds to Sam Kendricks).
WOMEN
LSU’s Sha’Carri Richardson (left/photo by Kirby Lee, Image of Sport) in my mind was by far the most dominant female track and field athlete during the collegiate season.
Richardson set a collegiate record in the 100, running 10.75 in the NCAA finals in Austin, and was second in the 200, running 22.17. Both marks were world U-20 records.
I gave my second place vote to Yanis David from Florida, who won the indoor title in the triple jump, and the outdoor long jump crown, while 100 meter hurdles champ Janeek Brown from Arkansas got my third place vote.
If marks after the NCAAs were to be considered, I would still give Richardson the first place vote even though she didn’t have a good outing at the USATF nationals, where she finished eighth in the 100 finals, and was fourth in her heat of the 200.
Brown was seventh in the finals of the 100 hurdles at world championships for Jamaica, so she would have received my second place vote over David, who was tenth in her flight of the long jump in Doha.
The fan vote back in July went to Oduduru and Richardson.
ESPN3 and the ESPN app will have live coverage of The Bowerman presentation from Orlando, Florida on Thursday beginning at 4 pm Pacific (7 pm Eastern).
NOTE: The USTFCCCA contributed to this report, while World Athletics and TFRRS provided statistical information.
Since 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 revealing who I gave my Bowerman vote to.
I saw all six Bowerman Award finalists compete in person at least once in 2019. That said, I missed the NCAA outdoor championships due to a conflict, and only saw them compete outside the collegiate season, either at the Toyota/USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, or the IAAF World Track & Field Championships in Doha, Qatar.
THE BOWERMAN ADVISORY BOARD CAN SEE EACH ATHLETE’S ENTIRE BODY OF WORK
Before I reveal who got my vote, I’m going to jump on my soapbox in response to various social media posts during the season stating that the Bowerman Advisory Board was wrong in picking the final three men and women (Mondo Duplantis of LSU, Grant Holloway of Florida, Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech; Janeek Brown of Arkansas, Yanis David of Florida, and Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU).
I will go on record to state that the Bowerman Advisory Board, led by Syracuse deputy athletics director Herman Frazier (1976 Olympic 4x400 relay gold medalist) and his committee do a pretty thorough job of evaluating the top collegiate track and field athletes from the time the indoor season begins in December all the way up to the NCAA outdoor championships in June.
His committee consists of many of the top collegiate administrators, national and regional media personnel, and track & field statisticians. In the case of media members and statisticians, many of those in the blue ribbon panel have probably forgotten more facts and statistics than what I know. I may disagree with some of these men and women, but I respect the hell out of them and the work they put in.
One thing the committee gets right consistently is that there’s no biases towards/against certain event groups. There is nothing in the rules and guidelines that state that certain event groups must be represented in the final three. That said, I found myself both laughing and shaking my head at the keyboard jockeys on social media suggesting that distance runner(s) should have been in the final three.
The Bowerman criteria clearly states that performances made during the cross country season are not considered. If the USTFCCCA (the coaches’ committee and sponsors of the Bowerman) and the panel decide to either create a separate award for cross country and/or allow cross country results to factor into the Bowerman voting, I wouldn’t have a problem as a voter with it.
Now that I’ve jumped off my soapbox, here we go:
MEN
Holloway had a complete indoor and outdoor season, winning the NCAA title indoors in both the 60 dash and 60 hurdles, as well as winning the 110 hurdles outdoors and running a leg on the Gators’ 4 x 100 relay.
He set the American and collegiate record in the 60 hurdles, running 7.35 at the NCAA indoor championships in Birmingham, Alabama. Holloway broke one of the most vaunted collegiate track & field records, the 13.00 set by Renaldo Nehemiah of Maryland in 1979, when he won the NCAA outdoor title in Austin, Texas, running 12.98.
Oduduru won both the 100 and 200 at the NCAA championships outdoors, and won the indoor 200 title, so he got my second place vote.
Duplantis won the national title in the pole vault indoors, and set collegiate records both indoors (19-5/5.92m) and outdoors (19-8.25/6.00m).
Losing the NCAA outdoor title to Chris Nilsen of South Dakota cost Duplantis my second place vote, though I would have given him my second place vote if world championships results were factored in (he was second at worlds to Sam Kendricks).
WOMEN
Richardson set a collegiate record in the 100, running 10.75 in the NCAA finals in Austin, and was second in the 200, running 22.17. Both marks were world U-20 records.
I gave my second place vote to Yanis David from Florida, who won the indoor title in the triple jump, and the outdoor long jump crown, while 100 meter hurdles champ Janeek Brown from Arkansas got my third place vote.
If marks after the NCAAs were to be considered, I would still give Richardson the first place vote even though she didn’t have a good outing at the USATF nationals, where she finished eighth in the 100 finals, and was fourth in her heat of the 200.
Brown was seventh in the finals of the 100 hurdles at world championships for Jamaica, so she would have received my second place vote over David, who was tenth in her flight of the long jump in Doha.
The fan vote back in July went to Oduduru and Richardson.
ESPN3 and the ESPN app will have live coverage of The Bowerman presentation from Orlando, Florida on Thursday beginning at 4 pm Pacific (7 pm Eastern).
NOTE: The USTFCCCA contributed to this report, while World Athletics and TFRRS provided statistical information.
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