Fan Poll: Women's Bowerman

Dec 17, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff

Three collegiate record holders make up the women’s finalists for the 2013 Bowerman award. This is one isn’t going to be easy.

The trio of Arizona’s Brigetta Barrett, Stanford’s Kori Carter, and Clemson’s Brianna Rollins is perhaps the deepest candidates the Bowerman award has ever seen. Between the three, there were zero losses in their main event against NCAA competitors, five NCAA titles and four records--won and set--last season.

It’s funny looking back at the last year. Aries Merritt said that Rollins would be breaking American records by the end of the year (she did). We wrote the headline “If Brigetta Barrett Doesn’t Win the Bowerman, I’m Not Sure What To Say” after she broke the collegiate high jump record (there’s nothing we can do now but laugh about that one). Carter made the move up from the 100mH to the 400mH and dropped her personal best from 57.60 to 53.21, which was a new collegiate record too.

We’ll take this opportunity to remind you of perhaps the most important piece of information for everyone who wants to chime in on who to vote for - you can only take into account performances that occurred during the NCAA season. Yes, all three ran summer races to varying degrees - gold medals and whatnot - but that cannot sway your vote.

Since Flotrack is a member of the voting committee, I don’t want to turn this into an analysis for why someone deserves to win over someone else. It’s better to let the people decide.

USTFCCCA released a fan poll back in August to see who the fans thought should take the surprisingly heavy Bowerman trophy. A few months ago, Carter garnered the most votes (8,609) with Rollins taking second (4,379) and Barrett finishing third (3,090).

Four months later, we want to revisit the online vote.

If you already have your mind made up, then feel free to punch the ballot above. If you’re still up in the air, the information below provided by USTFCCCA could help you make a decision. Or just make it harder. Whatever the outcome, I’m sure two things will be said after the award ceremony: (1) she’s totally deserving of the award and (2) what else could the other two have done last year?

QUICKLY – THE FINALISTS

Brigetta Barrett, Arizona

Courtesy: ArizonaWildcats.com

Year: Senior
Event: High Jump
Hometown: Wappinger’s Falls, N.Y.

Arizona senior Brigetta Barrett closed out her collegiate career on a high note after sweeping both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division I high jump titles for the third consecutive season and setting the outdoor collegiate record and the all-time dual meet record in the event, all while going unbeaten against collegians in 10 event finals between the indoor and outdoor seasons. She cleared winning heights of 6-3¼ (1.91m) in seven of those finals, and five times took attempts at breaking the collegiate record — succeeding at the Pac-12 Championships with a clearance of 6-6¼ (1.99m).

Her brief four-event indoor season culminated with a season’s-best clearance of 6-4¾ (1.95m) to take the NCAA Division I indoor title by two inches over the nearest competitor. She missed just once through her first seven heights before taking three tries at an indoor collegiate-record 6-6¼ (1.99m), which she did not clear but eventually would during the outdoor season. Her previous season’s best prior to the indoor championships had been a clearance of 6-3¼ (1.91m) in her 2013 debut at the Razorback Team Invitational.

Her outdoor season was one for the record books, as she not only claimed the Division I Outdoor high jump title but also set collegiate and all-time dual meet records along the way with two of the ten best clearances in collegiate history. Just as she did indoors, she took the outdoor Division I title with a winning height of 6-4¾ (1.95m), this time with a bit more drama as she cleared her final height on her third attempt, before taking three tries at a new collegiate record of 6-6¾ (2.00m).

The record she was attempting to usurp was none other than her own, set a month prior at the Pac-12 Championships. After a long build-up featuring 13 heights cleared in one attempt and five others on which she passed, she was successful on her third and final attempt at 6-6¼ (1.99m) to break the previous collegiate record of 6-6 (1.98m) held by Amy Acuff of UCLA (1995) and Kajsa Bergqvist of SMU (1999). She then missed on three attempts at 6-7½ (2.02m).

The collegiate record wasn’t the only all-time mark she took from Acuff, as Barrett cleared 6-4¼ at the Arizona-Arizona State-Northern Arizona tri meet to surpass Acuff’s all-time dual meet high jump record of 6-4 (1.93m) set in 1995. That was also Barrett’s winning height at the Stanford Invitational to launch her 2013 outdoor campaign.

Barrett continued her success at the USA Outdoor Championships, where she cleared a personal-best 6-8¼ (2.04m) to win the national title by nearly five inches. Hers is the highest clearance in the world for 2013.

Kori Carter, Stanford

Courtesy: GoStanford.com

Year: Junior
Events: Hurdles
Hometown: Claremont, Calif.

Stanford’s Kori Carter became a hurdling force to be reckoned with not only at the collegiate level but also on the world stage during her 2013 outdoor campaign, winning an NCAA Division I title in the 400 hurdles in collegiate-record style and finishing runner-up nationally in the 100 hurdles — both against some of the best competition the world has to offer.

She finished undefeated in eight races in the 400 hurdles — five of which came against 2012 Olympic Finalist Georganne Moline of Arizona, who finished fifth on the world stage in London — with two of the four fastest times in collegiate history, and lost just once in five finals in the 100 hurdles. The lone loss came in the NCAA final against collegiate record-holder Brianna Rollins of Clemson.

Carter, whose collegiate best in the 400 hurdles had been 57.10 set two seasons ago, finished her 2013 campaign with an NCAA title in an collegiate-record 53.21, surpassing the previous record of 53.54 set by Sheena Johnson of UCLA in 2004 and becoming just the second woman to dip under 54 seconds during the collegiate season.

A testament to how strong her competition was this season, Moline finished an instant later to become the third woman to dip under 54 during the collegiate season in 53.72, a time that would have won 30 of the 32 400 hurdles NCAA finals ever contested. The next day she finished runner-up in the 100 hurdles in a career-best 12.79.

She won Pac-12 titles in both the 400 and 100 hurdles, with her winning time of 54.21 in the former giving her the second-fastest collegiate history at the time, which now ranks No. 4. That victory was part of a series of victories over Moline. She also defeated the 2012 Olympian on her home track at the Jim Click Shootout at Arizona, at the NCAA West Prelims and twice at the NCAA Finals.

A long hurdler without her signature event during the indoor season, Carter was still able to finish 14th in the 60 hurdles at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships and ran a 400 leg of Stanford’s DMR team at the meet.

She has signed professionally with Nike and will not return to Stanford for her senior season.

Brianna Rollins, Clemson

Courtesy: ClemsonTigers.com

Year: Junior
Event: Hurdles
Hometown: Miami, Fla.

Clemson hurdler Brianna Rollins ended her final year at the collegiate ranks — she has signed with Nike and will forego her final year of eligibility — the exact same way she started it: with a collegiate record. The Tiger hurdler set the collegiate record in the indoor 60 hurdles in her very first final of the season and ended her campaign with the 100 hurdles collegiate record outdoors en route to an NCAA Division I title in the event.

In total, Rollins’ season featured NCAA DI titles in both the 60 and 100 hurdles; collegiate records in both events, setting it twice in the span of two days in the NCAA Championships 100 hurdles; five of the ten fastest times in collegiate history in the 60 hurdles; three of the seven fastest 100 hurdles all-conditions time in collegiate history; and an unbeaten streak of 17 races between the two events.

She left no doubt who was the best collegiate sprint hurdler of 2013, running away from the finals field to win in a collegiate record 12.39 (+1.7m/s) by .4 of a second — becoming the first collegiate woman to run faster than 12.40 in any conditions.

The time gives her the second-fastest in American history of any race run on U.S. soil, with Gail Devers’ 12.33 in 2000 the only mark better. In overall American history, Rollins is now the fourth-fastest performer. She is also tied for No. 9 on the IAAF all-time world performers list with two others.

The collegiate record she broke? None other than her own, set two days prior in the semifinals in 12.47 (+1.2m/s) to win by nearly half a second over eventual national runner-up Kori Carter of Stanford, who ended up setting a collegiate record of her own in the 400 hurdles. Rollins’ 12.47 surpassed the 12.48 posted by USC’s Ginnie Powell in 2006.

Her indoor season followed a similar arc to her entire 2013 campaign as a whole, winning the Tiger Challenge 60 hurdles in 7.78 to break Powell’s record of 7.84 from 2006. She did not run slower than 7.96 for the remainder of the season, ending with 7.82q and 7.79 performances to win the NCAA Indoor title in the event, giving her the three fastest times in collegiate history.

Following the collegiate season, Rollins signed with Nike and decided to forego her senior year at Clemson. At the USA Championships in her first competition as a professional, Rollins set the American record in the 100 hurdles in 12.26 (+1.2m/s) to win the American title in the event. She is now tied for the third-fastest in the world in the history of the event with Russia’s Ludmila Engquist, who ran an identical time in 1992. Rollins also ran 12.33Qw (+2.3m/s) and 12.30Qw (+2.8m/s) in the quarter finals and semifinals, respectively.