The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Floréal, Bizimana collect Big 12 Indoor Track and Field honors
03.04.2021 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Head coach Edrick Floréal swept the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year honors, while Yusuf Bizimana earned top men’s freshman honors.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Track and Field head coach Edrick Floréal and freshman distance runner Yusuf Bizimana earned end-of-season accolades from the Big 12 Conference on Thursday. Floréal swept the league's Men's and Women's Indoor Coach of the Year honors, claiming the men's title for the first time and his third consecutive in as many years at UT on the women's side. Bizimana was named the Big 12 Men's Outstanding Freshman of the Year, the second-straight year a Longhorn has won the honor.
Floreal, in his third season as Texas' head coach, guided the Longhorns to their first sweep of the Big 12 Indoor titles since 2015. The UT women scored 154 points en route to winning their fourth-straight Indoor conference title, marking just the second time in program history that they scored more than 150 points at the Big 12 meet. The Longhorns also achieved the feat with a Big 12 Indoor-record 180.33 points in 2020. It also made Texas just the second program in league history to win four consecutive indoor conference titles. On the men's side, Texas scored 141.5 team points and secured the their first Indoor conference crown since 2017 with a victory in the 4x400-meter relay, the final event of the meet. The Longhorns also claimed victory in the 200m, mile and shot put competitions in addition to six conference titles (60m, 200m, 400m, 600yd, 60mH, Pentathlon) on the women's side. Floréal was a unanimous selections for Big 12 Men's Coach of the Year.
Bizimana, a London, England native and mid-year enrollee at UT, won the men's mile with a time of 4:11.83 and placed second in the 800-meter run at 1:48.49 – just one-thousandth (0.001) behind first place. His 800-meter time was the ninth-fastest in the NCAA this season and it made him the third-fastest performer (No. 5 performance) in Texas history. At the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 13, Bizimana broke the UT school record in his first collegiate mile with a time of 3:57.81. He is only the sixth Longhorns to break the four-minute barrier indoors in the event.
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