The Bowerman Awards

The Bowerman: Women's Post NCAAs Watch List

The Bowerman: Women's Post NCAAs Watch List

Mar 19, 2015 by FloTrack Staff
The Bowerman: Women's Post NCAAs Watch List

NEW ORLEANS – What did it take at indoor nationals to get added to the Post-Indoor Women’s Watch List for collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor, The Bowerman Trophy? A meet record in the middle distances.

The Bowerman Women’s Post NCAAs Watch List

(Click student-athletes’ names for biographies & notes)

         
NAME YEAR SCHOOL EVENTS HOMETOWN
Remona Burchell SR Alabama Sprints Montego Bay, Jamaica
Natoya Goule RS SR Clemson Mid-Distance Clarendon, Jamaica
Kendra Harrison SR Kentucky Hurdles Clayton, NC
Kyra Jefferson JR Florida Sprints Detroit, Mich.
Sandi Morris SR Arkansas Pole Vault Greenville, S.C.
Leah O’Connor RS SR Michigan State Distance Croswell, Mich.
Courtney Okolo JR Texas Sprints Carrollton, Texas
Demi Payne RS SR Stephen F. Austin Pole Vault New Braunfels, Texas
Jenna Prandini RS JR Oregon Sprints/Jumps Clovis, Calif.
Emily Sisson RS SR Providence Distance Chesterfield, Missouri
Kendell Williams SO Georgia Combined Events Marietta, Ga.
Also Receiving Votes: Raven Saunders, Southern Illinois
 
Next Women’s Watch List: Thursday, April 16

Leah O’Connor of Michigan State and Natoya Goule of Clemson joined the Watch List after winning national titles and breaking meet records in the mile and 800 meters, respectively.

Both of them led their races from the gun and were handsomely rewarded. O’Connor covered her mile in 4:27.18, winning by over a second. And Goule ran almost exactly half that distance in 2:01.64, winning by 1.95 seconds–a huge margin in such a short race.

Eight of the other nine Watch List women won NCAA titles in Fayetteville. Emily Sisson of Providence won the 5000, Kendra Harrison of Kentucky won the hurdles, Remona Burchell of Alabam won the 60 meters, Courtney Okolo of Texas won the 400 and anchored the winning 4×400, Jenna Prandini of Oregon won the long jump, Kendell Williams of Georgia won the pentathlon, Kyra Jefferson of Florida won the 200, and Sandi Morris of Arkansas won the pole vault.

Williams was the only woman to break a collegiate record in her event; Sisson and Burchell already hold the CRs in theirs. So does the eleventh woman on the list, Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin, who no-heighted in the pole vault at nationals.

This edition of the Watch List contains eleven women, as there was a tie for the tenth most votes.

O’Connor (in the steeplechase), Goule, Burchell, Okolo, Prandini, and Williams already had Division I championships in their trophy cases. This weekend saw the first-ever titles for Sisson, Harrison, Jefferson, and Morris.

It’s the first-ever appearance on the Watch List for O’Connor; Goule had been on there earlier this season.

For the first time, Southern Illinois’s Raven Saunders received votes. In a minor upset, the American indoor junior record holder won the shot put and broke her own AJR.

Oregon and the SEC continue to expand their lead on the total appearance lists. The Ducks lead all schools with 65 appearances on the women’s watch list; the SEC leads all conferences with 148. Texas broke a tie with Florida State for the sixth most appearances, and Florida and Georgia joined Dartmouth and Colorado in a four-way tie for ninth.

With indoor finished, the focus turns to outdoors. Some of the women on the list expand their repertoire in the spring and summer: O’Connor adds the steeplechase, Sisson has said that the 10000 is her primary focus, and Harrison will have two hurdle races instead of one. Burchell, Jefferson, Prandini, and Okolo all ran the 4×100 at outdoor NCAAs last June, and with the national meet schedule not released yet, things may break favorably for Williams to add a second event—though as a heptathlete, it would really be an eighth event.

The men’s Watch List was released Wednesday; the next women’s watch list comes out Thursday, April 16.