BATON ROUGE – With just one week remaining before the July 24 deadline, Lady Tiger junior Kimberlyn Duncan is currently running in second place of the three finalists in the online fan vote for The Bowerman that continues at the official website for the award at www.TheBowerman.org.
The results of the online fan voting will count for one full vote in the final balloting to both the men’s and women’s recipients of the most prestigious individual honor in collegiate track and field.
Duncan has garnered 24 percent of the online vote since voting opened on July 9, while Oregon’s Brianne Theisen leads the way with 65 percent and Arizona’s Brigetta Barrett follows in third with 11 percent.
Online fan voting will be conducted at www.TheBowerman.org through Tuesday, July 24. Fans certainly made their voices heard in 2011 as a record was set with more than 83,000 votes cast during the two-week voting period. That’s a dramatic increase from the 20,000 votes in 2009 and 27,000 votes in 2010.
Now in its fourth year of existence, The Bowerman is college track and field’s equivalent to The Heisman Trophy in college football and is presented annually by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association to the top athlete at the collegiate level on both the men’s and women’s sides, as part of the annual USTFCCCA national convention in December.
Balloting by The Bowerman Award Advisory Board, past winners, selected media personnel, statisticians and collegiate administrators is also underway until later this month. An independent accounting firm will collect, tabulate and certify final results and will keep the result secret until the envelopes are opened with the winners announced at the USTFCCCA convention on Wednesday, Dec. 19.
Duncan will join her fellow finalists in Orlando, Fla., for The Bowerman presentation ceremony that is set for the night of Dec. 19 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes as a highlight to the convention.