The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Track and Field's Leo Neugebauer wins The Bowerman
12.18.2024 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Neugebauer becomes third Longhorn to win track and field's highest honor
ORLANDO, Fla. – Texas' three-time NCAA combined events champion, Leo Neugebauer, earned collegiate track and field's highest honor being named The Bowerman winner for 2024.
Neugebauer went undefeated at NCAAs, set German National Records, added a sweep at the Big 12 Championships in long jump and shattered the decathlon discus world record in his final season in Burnt Orange on his way to winning The Bowerman.
The nine-time All-American made history, again, when he became just the seventh man in world history to surpass 8,900 points in the decathlon after totaling 8,961 on his way to defending his title. His decathlon world-record throw of 57.70m and highest day 1 score of 4,685 points and day 2 score of 4,276 points all made history on his way to the sixth-best performance ever. The Germany native now holds four of the top-five scores in NCAA history.
Neugebauer added his first NCAA heptathlon title earlier in the season after scoring 6,347 points – the fourth best score in NCAA history. He made a lasting impression on the Big 12 conference after sweeping the long jump and helping UT win the men's outdoor title – its third in five seasons under head coach Edrick Floréal.
Thursday night's award marks the third time a Texas Longhorn has been awarded the trophy since its start in 2009. Neugebauer joins Courtney Okolo (2016) and Julien Alfred (2023) as past winners for the Longhorns and is the first male winner. It's only the third time in the Bowerman's history a school has won the award back-to-back seasons after LSU won in 2019 and 2021 (2020 was not awarded due to COVID-19) and Oregon in 2014 and 2015.
Texas is now tied with LSU, Texas A&M and Florida with the most winners (3) and sits only behind Oregon with five.
Neugebauer is the fifth man in award history to be a multiple time finalist and the first since 2019's winner Grant Holloway.
Players Mentioned
