Outdoor Track and Field on Flotrack 2013May 15, 2013 by Mitch Kastoff
If Brigetta Barrett Doesn't Win the Bowerman, I'm Not Sure What To Say
If Brigetta Barrett Doesn't Win the Bowerman, I'm Not Sure What To Say
We wanted to wait until the USATFCCCA Athlete of the Week came out to write this and for once, everything worked out fine. Last weekend at the Pac-12 Championships, two Arizona Wildcats went above and beyond their normal performances, literally.
Brigetta Barrett soared to a new collegiate high jump record and Lawi Lalang set two Pac-12 Championship records and oh who are we kidding - is the surprising really that surprising anymore for Lalang after his double at NCAA Indoors?
If Brigetta Barrett Doesn’t Win the Bowerman, I’m Not Sure What To Say
It was only a matter of time before it happened. Barrett finally broke the NCAA outdoor high jump record, which oddly enough, wasn’t a personal best. We could explain the history behind it, but Kyle Terwillegar does an excellent job in the USTFCCCA AotW Awards press release:
Barrett (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) put on a show of historic proportions in her Pac 12 Championships finale, becoming the best in-season collegiate high jumper of all time with a third-attempt clearance of 6-6¼ (1.99m) to claim the Pac-12 title. The 2012 Olympic silver medalist cruised through her first seven heights without a miss, setting up an attempt at 6-6¼ that would ultimately surpass the previous outdoor record of 6-6 (1.98m) held in a tie by UCLA’s Amy Acuff (1995) and Kajsa Bergqvist of SMU (1998), along with Destinee Hooker of Texas indoors (2009). After two misses, she cleared the bar on her third and final attempt to claim the record. She then took three attempts at 6-7½ (2.02m).
Courtesy of ArizonaWildcats.com
Barrett’s personal best actually comes from the Olympic Games, where she cleared 2.03m. Due to the fact that she was out of season, her jump didn’t count as a collegiate mark. That brings us to another honor that’s only given during the NCAA season: The Bowerman Award.
Last December, Barrett was one the three finalists for the Heisman of Track and Field. The other two finalists were Oregon’s Brianne Theisen and the eventual winner, LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan.
While Duncan’s resume made her a worthy candidate, I actually thought Barrett was going to win (I also thought Illinois’ Andrew Riley was going to run, so that shows what I know). Barrett’s 2012 credentials included two NCAA titles, becoming the first woman in DI history to earn dual-season titles in back-to-back years (there’s still this year), and she had won 17-straight competitions versus collegians.
After the season ended, Barrett took second at the Olympic Trials, second at the Olympic Games, and then second at the DecaNation in France. However, those marks cannot be considered toward earning the award because they’re out of season.
This year is already more of the same. With the exception of a second place finish at the Millrose Games, Barrett has been undefeated. Now that she’s broken the collegiate high jump record, is there anything left for her to prove that she deserves the award?
If Barrett doesn’t win this year, does that mean that field athletes can never win? If Ashton Eaton’s win in ’10 tell me anything, it’s that if Barrett can win the NCAA outdoor title, then I’ll pick her again to be the favorite come December.
Lawi Lalang Makes His 10k Debut, Then Runs 3:38.53
We hope that no one else planned on winning an NCAA title in the near future.
Brigetta Barrett soared to a new collegiate high jump record and Lawi Lalang set two Pac-12 Championship records and oh who are we kidding - is the surprising really that surprising anymore for Lalang after his double at NCAA Indoors?
If Brigetta Barrett Doesn’t Win the Bowerman, I’m Not Sure What To Say
It was only a matter of time before it happened. Barrett finally broke the NCAA outdoor high jump record, which oddly enough, wasn’t a personal best. We could explain the history behind it, but Kyle Terwillegar does an excellent job in the USTFCCCA AotW Awards press release:
Barrett (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) put on a show of historic proportions in her Pac 12 Championships finale, becoming the best in-season collegiate high jumper of all time with a third-attempt clearance of 6-6¼ (1.99m) to claim the Pac-12 title. The 2012 Olympic silver medalist cruised through her first seven heights without a miss, setting up an attempt at 6-6¼ that would ultimately surpass the previous outdoor record of 6-6 (1.98m) held in a tie by UCLA’s Amy Acuff (1995) and Kajsa Bergqvist of SMU (1998), along with Destinee Hooker of Texas indoors (2009). After two misses, she cleared the bar on her third and final attempt to claim the record. She then took three attempts at 6-7½ (2.02m).
Courtesy of ArizonaWildcats.com
Barrett’s personal best actually comes from the Olympic Games, where she cleared 2.03m. Due to the fact that she was out of season, her jump didn’t count as a collegiate mark. That brings us to another honor that’s only given during the NCAA season: The Bowerman Award.
Last December, Barrett was one the three finalists for the Heisman of Track and Field. The other two finalists were Oregon’s Brianne Theisen and the eventual winner, LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan.
While Duncan’s resume made her a worthy candidate, I actually thought Barrett was going to win (I also thought Illinois’ Andrew Riley was going to run, so that shows what I know). Barrett’s 2012 credentials included two NCAA titles, becoming the first woman in DI history to earn dual-season titles in back-to-back years (there’s still this year), and she had won 17-straight competitions versus collegians.
After the season ended, Barrett took second at the Olympic Trials, second at the Olympic Games, and then second at the DecaNation in France. However, those marks cannot be considered toward earning the award because they’re out of season.
This year is already more of the same. With the exception of a second place finish at the Millrose Games, Barrett has been undefeated. Now that she’s broken the collegiate high jump record, is there anything left for her to prove that she deserves the award?
If Barrett doesn’t win this year, does that mean that field athletes can never win? If Ashton Eaton’s win in ’10 tell me anything, it’s that if Barrett can win the NCAA outdoor title, then I’ll pick her again to be the favorite come December.
Lawi Lalang Makes His 10k Debut, Then Runs 3:38.53
We hope that no one else planned on winning an NCAA title in the near future.