And my 2021 Bowerman Award votes go to...

Friday at 4 pm Pacific time, the USTFCCCA will announce the men's and women's recipients of The Bowerman Award at a ceremony in Orlando, Florida in conjunction with the annual USTFCCCA convention.

As many of the long time readers of the blog know, I've been one of the privileged members of the media that has a vote in the sport's top male and female collegiate athlete of the year. 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.

To review, 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.”

So in the case of the 2021 season, how the six nominees (3 male, 3 female) fared at the  Olympic Trials and/or the Olympics were irrelevant in making the selection.

As I've done in the past, in the interest of transparency, I am revealing who I voted for. The photo of my ballot is the lead photo of this post. Before I reveal my picks, I will say that I saw all six athletes compete in person at least once this season at the NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene, and in the cases of Turner Washington of Arizona State, Tyra Gittens and Athing Mu of Texas A&M, I saw them compete during the outdoor season at one of the meets hosted by the University of Arizona in Tucson.

MEN

The men's vote was pretty clear cut, as my first place vote went to JuVaughn Harrison (Paul Merca photo) of LSU, followed by Cole Hocker of Oregon, and Turner Washington of Arizona State.

Harrison became the first athlete to win both the high jump and long jumps at the NCAA Indoor Championships, then matched that accomplishment at the outdoor championships in Eugene.

Harrison wrote his name all over the all-time collegiate charts, equaling the second-best clearance in the outdoor high jump at 2.36m (7-8¾) as part of a perfect 7-for-7 effort at the SEC Outdoor Championships and moving up to No. 3 in the indoor long jump at 8.45m (27-8¾) and No. 6 in the outdoor long jump at 8.44m (27-8¼). That mark in the indoor long jump occurred during his winning series at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where Harrison conquered the strongest field in meet history (It was the only final with four men over 8.10m (26-7), besting the previous best of three from 1993).

As dominant as Harrison was, Hocker won three NCAA titles in 2021--the indoor mile and 3000 titles, and the 1500 outdoors. Hocker sizzled the track in each of those title-winning races, setting a meet record in the indoor mile at 3:53.71 and barely missing meet records in both the indoor 3000 and outdoor 1500 by a total of 0.26 seconds.

Washington was the third man in NCAA D1 history to sweep the indoor and outdoor shot put titles, and win the discus in the same year, matching the feat of UCLA's John Godina and Arizona State's Ryan Whiting. He also threw an indoor collegiate record of 71-8.25/21.85m in the shot, and threw 217-5/66.26m in the discus, making him the number seven performer in collegiate history. Most impressive was the fact that he went undefeated in 2021.

While you could have made an argument on Washington and Hocker trading places 2 and 3, I felt that while it was close, the fact that Washington did not compete in the Pac-12 championships was what swayed me towards giving my second place vote to Hocker.

The US Olympic Trials would not have changed the order, as Harrison won both the high and long jumps at the meet, while Hocker took the win in the 1500. Washington did not even make the final in the discus.

WOMEN

The women's vote was a little tougher for the number one and two positions between Athing Mu (Paul Merca photo) of Texas A&M and Tara Davis of Texas, but in the end, I went with Mu.

Mu set four collegiate records and 10 all-time top-10 marks in individual events during her lone collegiate year and added blazing anchor legs to polish off a pair of record-setting relays. Indoors, Mu obliterated collegiate records in both the 600 (1:25.80) and 800 (1:58.40) with additional all-time top-10 efforts in each event. Between those, Mu went 50.52 over 400 meters for the fifth-fastest performance in collegiate indoor history.

While her only loss came in the NCAA indoor 400 meter race, she more than made up for it by anchoring Texas A&M to a national title in the 4 x 400, with a split of 49.54, the fastest split ever recorded. Mu's loss in the indoor 400 finals at NCAAs was the factor that made me hesitate about giving the first place vote, but her season long body of work won the day.

In her lone collegiate outdoor 800 meter race, she set the collegiate record of 1:57.73, before focusing solely on the 400 the rest of the collegiate season.

Of course we all know how it went for her at the Trials and the Olympics, as she won the 800 in Eugene and Tokyo, en route to being named the Female Rising Star by World Athletics.

Tara Davis of Texas swept the NCAA long jump titles and unified the collegiate indoor and outdoor records in that event – a combination last seen in the same year by Carol Lewis of Houston in 1983. Davis jumped 22-9/6.93m to break the indoor collegiate record in winning the NCAA title, then two weeks later, went 23-5.25/7.14m at the Texas Relays to set the collegiate outdoor mark.

Though it got dicey in Eugene, Davis came from behind to win the NCAA outdoor long jump crown with a mark of 21-11.75/6.70m to sweep the indoor and outdoor titles.

My third place vote went to Tyra Gittens of Texas A&M, as she scored 50 points behind three NCAA titles, one runner-up finish and two more third-place efforts. Two of those titles came at the NCAA Indoor Championships where she broke the collegiate record in the pentathlon (4746) on her way to becoming the first athlete in meet history to win both the high jump and pentathlon in the same year.

The native of Trinidad & Tobago kept it rolling to win the NCAA heptathlon crown by 118 points in Eugene, Oregon. In addition to those outstanding performances, Gittens finished runner-up in the outdoor long jump and took third in both the indoor long jump and outdoor high jump at the NCAA Championships.

All three women competed in the Olympics for their respective countries .Gittens and Davis made the finals in the long jump, with Davis finishing sixth, and Gittens tenth.

In the fan vote, which was conducted in July, Harrison and Davis were the winners, while the USTFCCCA membership vote went to Harrison and Mu.

The Bowerman Award show will be streamed on the USTFCCCA's YouTube channel beginning at 4 PM, Pacific time from the JW Marriott Orlando, Grand Lakes.

You can watch it below:

NOTE: The USTFCCCA, USA Track & Field, and World Athletics contributed to this report.

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