BATON ROUGE – Just one week after winning the Honda Sports Award as the top performer in women’s collegiate track and field, Lady Tiger senior Kimberlyn Duncan has been named among the 10 semifinalists for The Bowerman with the announcement on Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Duncan, the reigning winner of The Bowerman following the 2012 season, has been named a semifinalist for the top individual award in collegiate track and field for the third-straight year.
Now in its fifth year of existence, The Bowerman is track and field’s equivalent to The Heisman Trophy in college football and is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the top athlete at the collegiate level in both the men’s and women’s sides. Duncan is the only two-time finalist in the history of the award after being named among the final three candidates in 2011 and 2012.
Duncan is a frontrunner to take The Bowerman for the second-straight season as she has already been announced as the winner of Honda Sports Award for women’s college track and field for the second year in a row following the announcement on June 12 by the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards. She was recently selected among five finalists for Sports Illustrated’s inaugural Women’s College Athlete of the Year award in May as the only track and field athlete under consideration for the award.
Joining Duncan on the list of semifinalists are Arizona high jumper Brigetta Barrett, Oklahoma shot putter Tia Brooks, Stanford hurdler Kori Carter, Colorado steeplechaser Emma Coburn, Dartmouth distance ace Abbey D’Agostino, Oregon sprinter English Gardner, Clemson hurdler Brianna Rollins, Iowa State distance runner Betsy Saina and Illinois sprinter Ashley Spencer.
The 10 semifinalists will now be evaluated by the Bowerman Advisory Board with three finalists being announced by the USTFCCCA on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 10.
Duncan finished off a historic senior season with the Lady Tigers in 2013 with her unprecedented sweep of NCAA 200-meter titles as she became the first sprinter in collegiate history – male or female – to sweep NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor championships in the event in three-straight seasons with her double from 2011-13.
And she did so in dramatic fashion by equaling the fastest 200-meter performance in collegiate history under all conditions with her career-best wind-aided time of 22.04 seconds in the national final in Eugene, Ore., on June 8 to tie the wind-legal collegiate record of 22.04 set by LSU great Dawn Sowell at the 1989 NCAA Outdoor Championships held in Provo, Utah.
Duncan also earned her 13th and 14th career All-America honors as the NCAA Outdoor bronze medalist in the 100-meter dash and the second leg of LSU’s 4×100-meter relay that finished in sixth place nationally.
A winner of 24 of her last 25 collegiate finals in the 200-meter dash dating back to her sophomore season indoors in 2011, Duncan is also the No. 2-ranked 200-meter sprinter worldwide this 2013 outdoor campaign with a seasonal-best wind-legal time of 22.35 set in defending her SEC Outdoor title while tying the 14-year-old SEC Outdoor Championships meet record in the event set by Georgia’s Debbie Ferguson in 1999.
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.
Duncan made history at the 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 over 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 Semifinalists
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
Abbey D’Agostino, Junior, Dartmouth, Distance
Kimberlyn Duncan, Senior, LSU, Sprints
English Gardner, Junior, Oregon, Sprints
Brianna Rollins, Junior, Clemson, Sprints/Hurdles
Betsy Saina, Senior, Iowa State, Distance
Ashley Spencer, Sophomore, Illinois, Sprints/Hurdles