BATON ROUGE – As she prepares to defend her NCAA Outdoor title in the 200-meter dash in LSU’s season finale next weekend, Lady Tiger senior Kimberlyn Duncan remains in the running for the top individual award in collegiate track and field after receiving her 20th career selection to The Bowerman women’s watch list published Thursday afternoon.
Duncan, the reigning winner of The Bowerman on the women’s side and only two-time finalist in the award’s history, ranks second in the five-year history of the award with her 20 selections to the women’s watch list following Thursday’s release by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Duncan trails only the 22 watch list selections by former Oregon heptathlete Brianne Theisen, who was also a fellow finalist for The Bowerman a season ago.
Now in its fifth year of existence, The Bowerman is collegiate track and field’s equivalent to The Heisman Trophy for college football and is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the top male and female athletes.
Duncan was recently selected as one of five finalists for Sports Illustrated’s inaugural Women’s College Athlete of the Year award earlier this month for her performance as arguably the most dominant track athlete for her generation at the collegiate level. She enters the NCAA Championships next week as a semifinalist in both the 100 meters and 200 meters as a national title favorite in each event.
While winning the 200-meter title in 23 of her last 24 collegiate finals in the event dating back to the 2011 indoor season, Duncan is the two-time defending NCAA Outdoor champion in the event and the NCAA leader in 2013 with a seasonal-best wind-legal run of 22.35 set in winning her third-straight SEC Outdoor crown in the conference final on Sunday, May 12.
Duncan led the Lady Tigers to a second-place finish in the final women’s team standings at the 2013 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Columbia, Mo., while claiming the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy as the top individual point scorer during the meet. She tallied 22 points while also defending her SEC title in the 100 meters and earning All-SEC honors as a member of LSU’s second-place 4×100-meter relay team.
That performance earned her the title of SEC Women’s Outdoor Runner of the Year for the second-straight season as the premier track athlete in the nation’s top track and field conference.
The Katy, Texas, native is not only a national championship favorite in the 200 meters as the national leader in the event, but she is also a title contender in the 100 meters after running a seasonal-best wind-aided time of 11.05 while advancing to the NCAA semifinals with her performance at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in Greensboro, N.C., last weekend.
Duncan recently made history at the 2013 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships as she became the first sprinter in collegiate history – male or female – to win three-straight NCAA Indoor titles for the 200 meters. She also raced to an indoor PR and world-leading time of 22.54 seconds for the 2013 indoor season to claim her third-straight SEC Indoor crown in the event. That is the sixth-fastest time indoors in collegiate history and ranks Duncan as the NCAA’s No. 5 performer all-time in the indoor 200 meters.
Duncan actually swept sprint titles at the 2013 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships as she was also crowned the league 60-meter champion for the first time in her career. With her performance, she took home the SEC’s Cliff Harper Trophy as the top individual point scorer during this year’s SEC Indoor Championships.
The Bowerman Women’s Watch List (May 30)
Name, Year, School, Events
Brigetta Barrett, Senior, Arizona, High Jump
Tia Brooks, Senior, Oklahoma, Throws
Kori Carter, Junior, Stanford, Hurdles
Emma Coburn, Senior, Colorado, Distance
Kimberlyn Duncan, Senior, LSU, Sprints
English Gardner, Junior, Oregon, Sprints
Brianna Rollins, Junior, Clemson, Sprints/Hurdles
Betsy Saina, Senior, Iowa State, Distance
Aurieyall Scott, Junior, Central Florida, Sprints
Ashley Spencer, Sophomore, Illinois, Sprints/Hurdles