BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU women’s track and field sprinters Alia Armstrong and Favour Ofili have been named to the 2023 Watch List for the prestigious Bowerman Award.
The Bowerman is an annual award given to the year’s best men’s and women’s student-athletes in American collegiate track and field. It is named after former Oregon track and field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman and is administered by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
LSU athletes have won the Bowerman on three previous occasions – sprinters Kimberlyn Duncan (2012) and Sha’Carri Richardson (2019) captured the women’s award, and jumper JuVaughn Harrison was the men’s award recipient in 2021.
Armstrong, a native of New Orleans, La., won the 2022 NCAA Championship in the 100-meter hurdles and earned a spot on Team USA for the 2022 Track & Field World Championships. At the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she posted a time of 12.57 seconds in rainy conditions to capture LSU’s first 100-meter hurdle title since 2000.
She also earned a fourth-place finish in the 4×100 meter relay at the NCAA Championships, along with Tionna Beard-Brown, Thelma Davies and Ofili.
Armstrong posted a third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles at the United States Track & Field Championships to earn a spot on Team USA with a time of 12.47 seconds.
In July, she was sensational the World Championships, earning a fourth place finish in the 100 hurdles against the top athletes in the world with a time of 12.31, which shattered her personal-best time.
Ofili, a 2022 semifinalist for The Bowerman, recorded an impressive outing at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., racking up a team-high 13.25 points.
The native of Nigeria took silver in the 200 meters with a time of 22.05 and fifth in the 100 meters with a readout of 11.17. She also collected a fourth-place finish in the 4×100 meter relay with Armstrong, Beard-Brown and Davies.
Ofili ran a collegiate record-setting time of 21.96 in the 200 meters at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida, on April 15, making her the fastest runner in Nigerian history in the event.
She recorded a personal best of 10.93 seconds in the 100 meters at the SEC Championships, as both her 100 and 200 meter times ranked her inside the top 10 in the world in 2022.
Ofili completed the sprint triple at the 2022 SEC Championships, winning the 100 (10.93 seconds – personal record), 200 (22.04 seconds) and as a member of the 4×100 relay team (42.59 seconds).