NEW ORLEANS – Texas A&M’s Fred Kerley and Lindon Victor have both been named among the three finalists for the men’s Bowerman Award along with Tennessee’s Christian Coleman as the list of 10 semifinalists announced last week was trimmed down to the finalists for the prestigious award.
The Bowerman Award, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track and field athletes in the nation.
The Bowerman Award trophy will be presented to the winner during the USTFCCCA Convention on December 15 in Phoenix, Arizona.
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With the addition of Kerley and Victor, the Aggies have had six finalists over the past eight years of the award. Texas A&M athletes who have won the Bowerman award include Jessica Beard (2011) and Deon Lendore (2014) while Aggie finalists have included Porscha Lucas (2009) and Donavan Brazier (2016).
With Kerley and Victor both named finalists for the Bowerman it marks the first time two athletes from the same school were among the men’s finalists since 2010.
Collegiate record performances along with conference and national titles highlighted the senior campaigns for Kerley and Victor in 2017.
Kerley broke the collegiate record in the 400m with a time of 43.70 seconds to better the previous standard of 44.00 set in 1992 by USC’s Quincy Watts. Kerley also bettered the SEC meet record of 44.29 set in 1999 with a 44.09 during the prelims of the conference meet and claimed the final in 44.30.
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.
Victor broke the collegiate record in the decathlon twice this season. In late March he became the first Aggie to win the Texas Relays decathlon title, producing a score of 8,472 points that bettered the meet and collegiate record of 8,465 set by Trey Hardee of Texas in 2006.
In defending his SEC decathlon title, Victor improved his conference meet record from 2016 and bettered his collegiate record to a score of 8,539 points. Then a total of 8,390 points secured his second NCAA decathlon title, where he just came up short of the meet record of 8,457 points established by Ashton Eaton in 2010.
Victor was recently named the National Field Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season by USTFCCCA.
Kerley became the first collegian in 30 years to produce multiple times among the top 10 performances on the collegiate all-time list. Prior to this season only two athletes had a pair of performances among the collegiate top 10. Butch Reynolds of Ohio State ran 44.10 and 44.13 in 1987 while Washington State’s Gabriel Tiacoh posted a 44.30 and 44.32 in 1986.
In addition to his 43.70, Kerley has posted times of 44.09 (SEC prelims), 44.10 (NCAA final), 44.30 (SEC final), 44.57 (NCAA semi), and 44.60 (Michael Johnson Inv.) this outdoor season as he improved his previous outdoor career best of 45.10 set in April of 2016.
Among his performances on the 2017 world list, Kerley’s array of impressive times currently rank 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, =10. In addition to generating six of the top 10 performances on the world stage in the 400m this season, Kerley has posted five of the top 10 performances on the collegiate all-time list. With his collegiate record ranking No. 1, Kerley also has positions 3, =4, 6 and 10.
On the way to breaking the collegiate record in the decathlon twice this season, Victor also established the collegiate best score for the first day and second day of the decathlon.
During the Texas Relays, Victor amassed 4,516 points on the first day to better the previous mark of 4,500 set by Ashton Eaton of Oregon in 2010. During the SEC Championships, a second day score of 4,174 bettered the previous mark of 4,145 set by Jake Arnold (Arizona) in 2007.
In addition, Victor improved his collegiate best in the decathlon discus during the conference meet to 181-2 (55.22) and improved his NCAA meet best in the discus to 174-11 (53.31). Victor also produced the best score through nine events at the NCAA meet with 7,805 points to improve his tally of 7,723 from 2016.
Victor became just the fifth individual to successfully defend a NCAA decathlon title and on the all-time collegiate list his performances rank No. 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. As the national record holder for his native Grenada, Victor ranks third on the all-time Central American/Caribbean list.
Kerley’s season also included being part of collegiate record performances in the 4×400 relay indoors as well as the sprint medley relay outdoors.
Leading off the Aggie 4×400 indoors, Kerley split 44.96 as Texas A&M set a collegiate record of 3:02.52. During the SEC Relays, he ran the opening 200m leg of the sprint medley relay as the Aggies set a collegiate record of 3:11.94.
In the 4×400 relay outdoors, 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.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics