Florida's Parker Valby & Texas' Leo Neugebauer win The Bowerman Award...

ORLANDO--Distance runner Parker Valby of Florida and multi event specialist Leo Neugebauer (photos by Paul Merca) of Texas were selected by a panel of national and regional media personnel, track & field statisticians, NCAA collegiate administrators, past winners, presidents of affiliated organizations, fans and members of the USTFCCCA as the 2024 Bowerman Award winners in a ceremony in conjunction with the USTFCCCA Convention Thursday night at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes Resort in Orlando, Florida.

The Bowerman Award is presented to the most outstanding collegiate male and female athlete of the 2024 season, and is the sport's equivalent to football's Heisman Trophy and basketball's Wooden Award.

Valby won a pair of NCAA doubles – the 3000-5000 indoors and the 5000-10,000 outdoors, all in meet records. In both cases, the 5000-meter marks also served as a new collegiate record (indoors breaking her own from earlier in the season). Valby added a CR of 30:50.43 in the 10,000 in her debut at the distance.

She was undefeated in all eight of her finals, each with a performance ranking among the all-time top-10 as she now owns Nos. 3 and 6 in the indoor 3000 (best of 8:41.50), Nos. 1 and 2 in the indoor 5000 (best of 14:52.79), Nos. 1 and 5 in the outdoor 5000 (best of 14:52.18) and Nos. 1 and 7 in the 10,000. 

Valby is the third athlete from the University of Florida to win The Bowerman, and the first woman. She joins 2015 winner Marquis Dendy and 2019 winner Grant Holloway.

Valby beat out a field that included shot putter Jaida Ross of the University of Oregon, and middle distance runner Maia Ramsden of Harvard.

At the NCAA championships in Eugene, Neugebauer became just the seventh man in history to eclipse 8900 points in the decathlon with his 8961-point total. Included in that ten-event masterclass was a decathlon discus world record 57.70m (189-4) and the highest Day 1 and Day 2 totals in collegiate history at 4685 points and 4276 points, respectively.

Neugebauer scored 8708 points at the Texas Relays for what is now the fourth best total in collegiate history behind two of his own and Kyle Garland’s former CR of 8720.

Indoors, "Leo the German" won the NCAA heptathlon title in Boston, scoring 6347 points, which vaulted him to fourth on the all-time collegiate chart.

Neugebauer topped a talented group of finalists that included 400 meter specialist Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia, and hurdler Caleb Dean of Texas Tech.

Neugebauer is the third Longhorn to win The Bowerman, joining 2016 winner Courtney Okolo and 2023 winner Julien Alfred.

At the Paris Olympics, Valby finished eleventh in the 10000, running 30:59.28, while Neugebauer was second in the decathlon for Germany, scoring 8748 points.

The USTFCCCA release for Valby and Neugebauer are available here.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA and the sports information offices of the University of Florida and the University of Texas contributed to this report.

Publisher Paul Merca is a national media voter of The Bowerman Award.

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