Lendore & Roesler Win Bowerman Fan Vote
Lendore & Roesler Win Bowerman Fan Vote
NEW ORLEANS – While The Bowerman Trophy – collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor – will not be officially awarded until December 17, the results of the Fan Vote made clear the general public’s picks to win the men’s and women’s awards: Deon Lendore of Texas A&M and Laura Roesler of Oregon.
Lendore notched 52.56 percent of the men’s vote with 8,812 total votes – this year’s highest total for either gender – to win by a wide margin over Edward Cheserek of Oregon in second and Lawi Lalang of Arizona in third.
Roesler accrued 41.71 percent of the women’s competition with a final total of 8,239 to defeat runner-up Courtney Okolo of Texas and third-place Sharika Nelvis of Arkansas State.
The results of the Fan Vote will count as one ballot in the overall process alongside the ballots of former winners and track & field media members, administrators, statisticians and experts from around the country.
By virtue of their Fan Vote victories, Lendore and Roesler will both receive three points in the overall The Bowerman Trophy voting process. Cheserek and Okolo will both receive two points, and Lalang and Nelvis will earn one.
Winners of The Bowerman Trophy will be announced Wednesday, December 17, in a live ceremony at the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Convention in Phoenix, Ariz., at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa.
On the men’s side, Cheserek finished second with 32.95 percent and 5,515 votes and Lalang was third with 14.39 percent and 2,409. After starting neck-and-neck with Cheserek, Lendore’s fans boosted him to a comfortable margin he would hold for the rest of the two weeks.
Okolo was second in the women’s vote with 34.07 percent and 6,731 votes, while Nelvis was third with 24.22 percent and a total of 4,784.
Throughout the two-week vote, first Nelvis then Okolo made serious runs at Roesler’s lead. Okolo eventually took the lead at the end of the first week, but Roesler stormed back behind strong Oregon support and didn’t look back.
Nearly 22,000 unique voters cast 19,754 votes for the women and 16,763 for the men for a total of 36,490.
Two of the past three winners of the men’s Fan Vote have gone on to win The Bowerman Trophy – Ngoni Makusha of Florida State in 2011 and Cam Levins of Southern Utah in 2012 – while the last woman to win both the Fan Vote and The Bowerman Trophy was Jessica Beard of Texas A&M in 2011.
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