NEW ORLEANS – Semifinalists for the men’s Bowerman Award were announced today by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and three Aggies were among the 10 athletes named.
Texas A&M’s trio on the semifinalists list include Fred Kerley, Ioannis Kyriazis and Lindon Victor. All three claimed national titles in their respective events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships held last weekend in Eugene, Oregon.
Also named to the men’s semifinalists list for the Bowerman Award were KeAndre Bates, Florida; Edward Cheserek, Oregon; Christian Coleman, Tennessee; Grant Holloway, Florida; Josh Kerr, New Mexico; Emmanuel Korir, UTEP; and Filip Mihaljevic, Virginia.
Three finalists for the award will be announced next Thursday, June 22.
Among an undefeated season of 12 races in the 400m, Kerley swept SEC and NCAA titles in the event during the indoor and outdoor seasons. He broke the SEC meet record of 44.29 with a 44.09 during the prelims of the conference meet. Then Kerley broke the collegiate record of 44.00 set in 1992 by USC’s Quincy Watts with a 43.70 performance during the NCAA West Preliminary rounds in Austin.
During the NCAA Championships, Kerley posted a time of 44.10 in claiming the national title as he recorded the second fastest time in meet history. In the 4×400 relay, Kerley anchored the Aggies to a pair of sub-three-minute efforts as he split 43.96 on a 2:59.95 semifinal and then 43.99 on a 2:59.98 in the final. It was the first time one school has produced two times under three minutes at the NCAA Championships.
In addition to a collegiate record in the 400m, Kerley was part of collegiate record performances in the 4×400 relay (indoors) as well as the sprint medley relay (outdoors).
Victor defended his decathlon titles at both the SEC and NCAA Championships. In his first decathlon of the 2017 season, Victor broke the collegiate record with a score of 8,472 points to win the Texas Relays. Victor bettered the collegiate record again with a score of 8,539 points at the SEC meet.
A score of 8,390 secured a second NCAA decathlon title for Victor. He also generated the best first day and second day scores by a collegian at the Texas Relays (4,516 first day) and SEC meet (4,174 second day).
Kyriazis claimed his first NCAA javelin title in his junior season with Texas A&M after claiming a third consecutive SEC title.
Opening his season at the Texas Relays, Kyriazis broke the meet record with one mighty toss that measured 288 feet, 9 inches (88.01). It was the second farthest throw by a collegian, just shy of the collegiate record of 292-4 (89.10) set in 1990 by Patrik Boden of Texas.
Kyriazis bettered the Texas Relays meet record of 274-2 (83.56) set by Boden in 1990 and the Myers Stadium facility record of 283-5 (86.38) established by Boris Henry of Germany in 2001. Kyriazis added 20 feet to his winning mark of 268-7 (81.87) from the 2016 Texas Relays.
Another one attempt performance by Kyriazis during the SEC Championships produced a mark of 262-11 (80.15), which broke the meet record of 261-4 (79.65) set in 2009 by Georgia’s Chris Hill. The third throw of the season for Kyriazis came in Austin during the NCAA West Preliminary round where he advanced to Eugene with a toss of 249-8 (76.09).
Using his full allotment of six attempts during the NCAA Championships, Kyriazis broke the meet record with a throw of 270-11 (82.58) in the second round of competition. That effort bettered the previous meet record of 268-7 (81.86) set by Arizona’s Esko Mikkola in 1998 and bettered the NCAA field by 19 feet.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics