Who should be the 2024 Bowerman finalists in NCAA track and field? (2024)

The 10 men's and women's Bowerman semifinalists have been announced, providing a preview of the candidates for the award that goes to the most outstanding track and field athletes of the 2024 season. Here's who I think should advance as top-three finalists for this year's Bowerman.

Men

Leo Neugebauer | Texas

Leo Neugebauer was a Bowerman finalist last year and had a better season this year. In the outdoor season, Neugebauer broke the decathlon collegiate record he set last year: 8,961 points to 8,836 points. He also set individual decathlon event collegiate records in the shot put (twice) and the discus, setting a world record in the latter.

In the indoor season, Neugebauer didn’t win a title last year when he was a finalist, but in 2024, he won the indoor title with the fifth-best collegiate performance of all time. With the Bowerman going to the “most outstanding athlete in track and field,” one can argue that Neugebauer’s dominance in the combined events is the most outstanding of any athlete this year.

Past Bowerman watch list rankings:Watch list 4|Watch list 5|Watch list 6| Watch list 7

Christopher Morales Williams | Georgia

Christopher Morales Williams joins Neugebauer as the only male athlete with a collegiate record and an NCAA title in the indoor and outdoor seasons. That’s why he should be a finalist.

Morales Williams swept the 400-meter indoor-outdoor titles and set an unratified world record in the indoor 400 meters. While he didn’t break 43 seconds in the outdoor season, his 44.05 PR is the sixth-fastest time in NCAA history.

CHAMPS:Every indoor and outdoor track and field individual event champion all-time

The final spot

The final finalist spot for the 2024 men’s Bowerman will be tightly contested. Here’s how I broke them down.

Long shots

• Wayne Pinnock | Arkansas
• Parker Wolfe | North Carolina
• Habtom Samuel | New Mexico
• Jordan Davis | Southern Connecticut

First, I’ll explain why each of the long shots doesn’t have a shot to be a finalist. All three of the long shots only have an NCAA title in one season.

When it comes to Parker Wolfe, there’s an argument that he shouldn’t even be a semifinalist over someone like Keaton Daniel of Kentucky, who swept the pole vault titles. Moreover, Wolfe’s season-best outdoor 5K time is only the 25th best all-time, and his 10K time doesn’t sniff the top-25 all-time, paling in comparison to Habtom Samuel, who has two top-10 outdoor marks in those events. While Wolfe does have the third-best indoor 3K and 12th-best indoor 5K marks, that just won’t cut it in a battle for “most outstanding.”

Habtom Samuel finished the season strong with an NCAA title in the 10K, but he’s a long shot because Nico Young had a better indoor season than him, and ran faster times than him during the outdoor season. Wayne Pinnock is a long shot because he has just one NCAA title and no collegiate record to push him ahead of anyone with two NCAA titles.

Lastly, Jordan Davis is the lone semifinalist from the Division II level. Davis dominated in the javelin with his 84.45-meter and 83.77-meter throws, standing as the eighth and 10th-farthest javelin throws in NCAA history across divisions and the best throws in DII history. Davis threw over 80 meters four times this season, but I don’t think his performance in just the outdoor season as a javelin thrower was outstanding enough to overshadow athletes with indoor AND outdoor performances. If he had thrown for an NCAA record, I’d think otherwise.

Two-season champions

• Romaine Beckford | Arkansas
• Caleb Dean | Texas Tech
• Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan | Ole Miss

Wildcard

• Nico Young | Northern Arizona

Now we get into the real battle for the third and final finalist spot. I’ll start by figuring out which of the two-season champions have the best resume.

Romaine Beckford only competed in the high jump. While four straight titles are impressive, for the sake of the Bowerman only his two titles from 2024 are considered. Beckford’s high jumping alone is outstanding, but he doesn’t have the versatility of the other athletes in the “two-season champions” category who won multiple NCAA titles and had top-eight finishes in other events.

Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan has zero top-25 all-time marks from the outdoor season and is only the 23rd-best collegiate performer in the indoor shot put. His lack of all-time marks has him on the outside looking in.

Caleb Dean barely competed in the outdoor season, missing the entire regular season, but when he was on the track, he performed well. His 110 hurdles performances didn’t go as he would’ve hoped, but in his first meet (Big 12 Championship), he ran the then-fourth-fastest 400 hurdles time in the country. Dean then ran the then-second-fastest time in the country at West regionals before closing his season with the second-fastest 400 hurdles performance in NCAA history. His 47.23-second finish to win the NCAA title sits only behind Rai Benjamin on the all-time charts.

Additionally, Dean’s 14.25 points were 28 percent of Texas Tech’s team total to win the indoor title. At the NCAA indoor meet, Dean had a first-place win in the 60 hurdles, a sixth-place finish in the 60 meters and the lead-off leg of the fourth-place 4x400 meter relay team. Dean has the best case for a Bowerman finalist spot of any of the “two-season champions”.

So it comes down to Caleb Dean vs. Nico Young for the final Bowerman finalist spot. Before I break down Young’s case, I’ll preface it by acknowledging Young has an advantage over Dean historically because Dean’s first-ever appearance on a Bowerman watch list came with his semifinalist appearance. Dean is only the 24th man to ever make his season-debut appearance on the Bowerman watch list as a semifinalist. Leo Neugebauer — in 2023 — is the only man from the group to also earn a finalist berth.

That said, let’s get into Nico Young’s Bowerman resume. We’ll start with the collegiate records. Young set NCAA records in the indoor 5K and outdoor 10K. Now let’s get to the NCAA titles. Young didn’t win an NCAA outdoor title but swept the indoor distance titles in the 3000 and 5000 meters. I’m on record saying that “Young would've been my Bowerman pick after the indoor season,” but without similar championship-winning outdoor success, does Young even finish as a finalist?

It’s close, but I think Young’s pair of collegiate records get him the edge over Dean. I think the three Bowerman finalists should be Leo Neugebauer, Christopher Morales Williams, and Nico Young.

Women

Parker Valby | Florida

Before I get into the breakdown, I need everyone to remember that Parker Valby’s 2023 cross country performances DO NOT count toward her Bowerman resume per the rules.

With that out of the way, Valby still has arguably the strongest Bowerman resume of any athlete. Valby set collegiate records in the 5000 meters twice indoors and set collegiate records in the 5K and 10K outdoors. Valby swept the NCAA distance titles in the indoor 3000 and 5000 meters and the outdoor 5000 and 10,000 meters. If you’re counting, that's setting an NCAA record three times and winning an NCAA title four times. It doesn’t get more outstanding than that.

AWARDS:The 2024 Bowerman Watch List for men's and women's NCAA track and field

First athlete out

• Ackelia Smith | Texas

Now we are in the process of elimination phase for the finalist spots. The first athlete eliminated from finalist contention is Texas’ Ackelia Smith. Smith is the only athlete that wasn’t on watch list No. 7, didn’t win a title in the indoor AND outdoor seasons, nor set a collegiate record.

That leaves eight athletes for two spots.

Indoor-Outdoor titlists

The following three athletes are the only women's semifinalists who reached the pinnacle of NCAA individual title success during the indoor and outdoor seasons.

• Maia Ramsden | Harvard
• Jasmine Jones | Southern California
• Juliette Whittaker | Stanford

How should these athletes be ranked in terms of Bowerman contention? I have to rank Maia Ramsden first. Ramsden is the only athlete with titles in both seasons and a collegiate record, running the anchor leg of Harvard’s record-setting outdoor distance medley relay.

In second, I have Jasmine Jones, who added an indoor USATF silver medal in the 60 meter hurdles to her NCAA 60 meter hurdles and 400 meter hurdles titles. Jones ran the second-fastest 400 hurdles time in collegiate history and an NCAA championship record, ran the fifth-fastest 60 hurdles time in collegiate history and finished fourth nationally in the 100 hurdles.

Jones’ USATF success and all-time marks place her above Juliette Whittaker who swept the 800 meter titles and ran the fourth-fastest indoor and 11th-fastest outdoor 800 meter times.

RECORDS:Every collegiate track and field record broken in 2024

Outdoor season stars

The remaining Bowerman semifinalists had terrific outdoor seasons but didn’t win an indoor title. They are:

• Jaida Ross | Oregon
• Nickisha Pryce | Arkansas
• Rhema Otabor | Nebraska
• Doris Lemngole | Alabama
• McKenzie Long | Ole Miss

Among this quintet, four athletes set a collegiate record — the other, McKenzie Long, won the 100 and 200 meter titles and helped Ole Miss win the 4x100 title. I’ll separate the collegiate record holders first, and evaluate Long’s standing next.

When it comes to the collegiate record holders, Jaida Ross has to be the highest ranked among the group when it comes to who was the most outstanding. She finished second in the shot put outdoors and dominated during the outdoor season, resetting the shot put record books three times. While Ross didn’t add another record-topping mark at the NCAA Championships like the other three women in this Bowerman group, she still won an NCAA title.

I’d rank the other three collegiate record holders as follows: Nickisha Pryce, Rhema Otabor and then Doris Lemgole. It all comes down to preference with those three. Pryce takes the top spot because her being the first woman to break 49 seconds in the 400, plus collegiate records on the 4x400 relay stand out the most to me. Pryce also finished second in the 400 and seventh in the 200 indoors, putting her ahead of Otabor who just competed outdoors in the javelin. Otabor comes in next because she broke a collegiate record that stood since 2016 while Lemngole broke a record that fell in 2022.

Wildcard

• McKenzie Long | Ole Miss

McKenzie Long is the wildcard of the Bowerman finalist race. She stole the show at the outdoor championships, the last meet of the season, leaving a lasting memory in everyone’s mind. Dominating the sprints as she did is no joke, and winning a 100 meter, 200 meter and 4x100 title is outstanding. Long also finished second in the indoor 200 meters.

But was her season more outstanding than the rest of the women's semifinalists?

I would place Long higher than Juliette Whittaker, Doris Lemngole and Rhema Otabor on the hypothetical Bowerman outstanding meter for sure. That leaves us with five athletes for two spots: Maia Ramsden, Jasmine Jones, Jaida Ross, Nickisha Pryce and McKenzie Long. I’d have no problem with any of these athletes being one of the Bowerman finalists, and I honestly have no idea how the voting will go.

That said, I have to give Maia Ramsden the second spot as a finalist. Ramsden has a collegiate record — in a relay — an indoor title and an outdoor title. That alone doesn’t give Ramsden a better case for the Bowerman than the rest of the women.

However, a closer look at Maia Ramsden’s season shows that she did not lose to a collegiate athlete in a mile or 1500 meter race all season. It doesn’t get more outstanding than undefeated against collegiate competition. Ramsden should be a Bowerman finalist.

TITLE RECAP:How Florida and Arkansas won the 2024 NCAA DI outdoor track and field championships

The final spot

Jaida Ross, Jasmine Jones, Nickisha Pryce or McKenzie Long. Who should be the final Bowerman finalist?

First, let’s look at the case of McKenzie Long. Long’s historical nature of her accomplishments in the outdoor season makes this a tough decision. Long is only the fifth woman in NCAA history to win the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100 meter relay at the same outdoor meet. She joins LSU’s Dawn Sowell (1989) and Esther Jones (1990), and Texas’ Carlette Guidry (1991) and Julien Alfred (2023). As you may remember, Alfred won the Bowerman last year after said season, albeit with more indoor success. Sowell, Jones and Guidry didn’t have a Bowerman to win.

Long being the fifth woman ever to accomplish the 100-200-4x1 sweep stands out more to me than Pryce setting the 400 and 4x4 record, which has fallen four times in the last decade.

Jones doesn’t have a collegiate record from this season and while she has an indoor title and Long does not, Long’s second-place finish in the indoor 200 closes the indoor gap between the two. Long’s two outdoor individual titles and relay titles give her the slight edge.

Now let’s look at Long vs. Ross.

Ross’ dominance in the shot put during the outdoor season reminds me of when Cal’s Camryn Rogers earned a Bowerman finalist berth in 2022. Ross was the best women’s field event athlete in the 2024 calendar year as the only woman with an event win and a top-two finish in the indoor and outdoor seasons separately.

A thrower vs. a sprinter. Two different ends of the spectrum. A dominant outdoor season vs. a dominant outdoor day. Both with second place finishes indoors.

It’s a decision that can go either way, but I’m going to go with Long because she won two individual outdoor events when presented with the opportunity. Ross finished 14th in her second event, the discus, at outdoor championships.

So, my women’s Bowerman finalists are Parker Valby, Maia Ramsden and McKenzie Long.