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Armstrong & Rose Named to The Bowerman Women’s Preseason Watch List

by Braydin Sik
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Armstrong & Rose Named to The Bowerman Women’s Preseason Watch List

NEW ORLEANS – The USTFCCCA released The Bowerman Women’s Preseason Watch List on Tuesday, the first edition before seven in-season updates are released through the indoor and outdoor seasons. The Tigers are the only team in the nation with multiple women on the list.

Alia Armstrong is making her second-straight appearance on the preseason watch list, and is the active leader in watch list appearances with eight. This is her third-straight season appearing on the list.

This indoor season will be Armstrong’s first time since March 11, 2022, racing in the 60-meter hurdles. During the 2022 season the New Orleans native was on a terror, setting the LSU 60mH record with a time of 7.81 seconds at the Tyson Invitational and taking gold at the SEC Championships in the 60 meter. Armstrong made one appearance indoors last season in the 60m at home before bowing out the rest of the indoor season with an injury.

During the 2023 outdoor season Armstrong returned to form as if she was never injured the months prior. The annual Bowerman watch list member became the fastest LSU Tiger over the 100-meter hurdles, recording a time of 12.40 seconds to take gold at the SEC Championships. She then went on to finish third at the NCAA Championships in the 100mH, and took seventh at the USATF National Championships. Armstrong was also the leadoff for the 4×100-meter relay team that took gold at the SEC Championships. She ended the season a two-time First Team All-American and was named the All-State Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Year.

Michaela Rose is only one of two (Ackelia Smith) semifinalists returning from the previous year, the least since 2020.

Rose had the most dominant 800-meter season in collegiate history during her 2023 indoor and outdoor campaign. The Suffolk, Va., native became the only woman in NCAA history to clock three sub-two minute 800-meter times in a collegiate-outdoor career, doing so in only one season (2023 outdoor). Rose clocked the second-fastest time in collegiate history and the LSU record of 1:59.08 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Her dominance was so strong that she recorded six of the eight fastest 800-meter times among all collegiate athletes in 2023.

Her dominance throughout the 2023 season earned Rose both the indoor and outdoor SEC titles in the 800m, and eventually the much sought-after NCAA outdoor title. Along with claiming the LSU indoor and outdoor records for the 800m, Rose laid claim to the outdoor DMR record (10:59.86) and recorded the second fastest 1500-meter time (4:11.98) in school history. Rose closed out the season as a finalist for the 800m at the USATF Outdoor Championships, and was named a Bowerman semifinalist and the LSWA Women’s Track Athlete of the Year.

The men’s edition of The Bowerman Preseason Watch List will be released tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. CT. For more about The Bowerman, visit ustfccca.org.

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