The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Okolo among finalists for The Bowerman
12.14.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Top award in collegiate track & field awarded on Friday night
The Bowerman homepage | FloTrack live webcast
AUSTIN, Texas – On Friday night the most prestigious award in collegiate track and field will be awarded Friday night, and former Texas sprinter Courtney Okolo will be among the three finalists.
The USTFCCCA will present The Bowerman to the top male and female track and field student-athlete from the 2016 collegiate season in Orlando during the annual award ceremony. The red carpet ceremony is set for 5 p.m. Central from the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes with the award presentation and reception to follow. The event will also be webcast live on FloTrack with a link provided at texassports.com as well as TheBowerman.org and FloTrack.org. This year the ceremony will be emceed by ESPN anchor and former Missouri high jumper John Anderson.
Okolo is one of three finalists for the women's award and earned her nomination with an impressive 2016 campaign on the track. In her outdoor debut in her signature event, Okolo shattered her own collegiate record in the 400 meters, clocking in at 49.71 seconds at the LSU Alumni Gold on April 21. She capped her outdoor season with a win at the NCAA Championships in 50.36seconds, the No. 10 time in collegiate history. She now owns four of the top 10 times in the 400 meters outdoors. Okolo also ran a dramatic anchor leg to bring Texas back from behind to win the 4x400 meter relay. Okolo weaved through traffic through the final turn to move from 20 meters back to a dominant win over the final 100 meters of the race.
Indoors, Okolo also dominated the field as she defended her NCAA title in the 400 meters with a time of 50.69 seconds to rank third in collegiate history. She again ran the anchor leg of the 4x400 to lead the Longhorns to victory in 3:28.27 to rank sixth in collegiate history. But that wasn't even the fastest time of the season for Okolo and the Longhorns. Texas ran 3:27.94 at the Tyson Invitational. In total, Texas has run four of the top seven times in NCAA history with Okolo on the 4x400.
At the Big 12 Championships, Okolo proved to be one of the best of all-time in the conference. She won the 200/400 double indoors and set Big 12 Championship meet records in both events. During the outdoor conference championship meet, Okolo won her third straight title in the 400. She also ran on the victorious 4x100 relay and sat out the 4x400 after the team had already secured the championship. She remains the only woman in Big 12 Championship history to run sub-51 at the conference meet, and did it twice.
The other female finalists are Keturah Orji of Georgia and Raven Saunders of Ole Miss. The men's finalists are Donavan Brazier of Texas A&M, Edward Cheserek of Oregon, and Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas.
Created in 2009, The Bowerman is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track and field athletes in the nation and has been called by some "The Heisman Trophy of Track and Field."
Since the award's inception, the USTFCCCA has recognized a number of athletes who are among the best in the world today. Past winners have combined to win nine Olympic medals, including three golds this summer in Rio.
The award is named after Bill Bowerman, legendary former coach of the Oregon Ducks and co-founder of Nike.
The award is voted upon by dozens of media members, statisticians and college administrators. An online fan vote held this summer also accounts for one vote in the scoring, and all past 14 winners receive a vote. Each voter ranks the finalists in order, allotting three points to their first choice, two points to their second and one point to their third. Okolo finished second in the fan voting this year behind Orji.
Players Mentioned
