NEW ORLEANS – The USTFCCCA released The Bowerman Women’s February Watch List on Wednesday, this is the first update of seven in-season updates that are released throughout the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Once again, the Tigers are the lone team with multiple members on the most prestigious watch list in collegiate track and field. Brianna Lyston is the latest addition, making her first appearance alongside Alia Armstrong and Michaela Rose who were on the preseason watch list.
Lyston is the 12th member in LSU women’s history to be named to the watch list, marking the first time three LSU women have appeared on the same watch list. In addition, LSU’s women have had at least three named to at least one watch list in each of the last three years. The Tigers are the first program to accomplish such a feat.
The Portmore, Jamaica, native (Lyston) is making her debut after shocking the collegiate-track world in her 60-meter season debut a few weeks back. Lyston stormed out to a time of 7.07 seconds, tying American-record holder Aleia Hobbs’ LSU record set back in 2018. A few days later the nation-leading 60m sprinter was named the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week.
Armstrong continues to be the active leader in watch list appearances of current members, making her ninth appearance on the list.
In her first real indoor season since she set the LSU 60-meter hurdle record back in 2022, Armstrong has been the best hurdler in the nation and it’s not particularly close. The New Orleans native has held the nation lead each week she has competed, currently holding a nation’s best 7.92@ seconds that she ran at the Corky Classic. The Rhinestone Queen has also accumulated five times under the eight-second barrier, which only one other athlete in the nation has gone sub-eight this season, once.
Rose is only one of two semifinalists returning from the previous year, the least since 2020. The Suffolk, Va., native hasn’t ran much this season through three meets, but she hasn’t needed to after setting the 600-yard collegiate record and recording the No. 2 mile in LSU history.
After taking the last week off with the rest of the distance crew, Rose will be heading east to the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational. The mid-distance star will look to take on the 800 meter for the first time this season, an event where she has already racked up what many would consider the best career in collegiate history. Last year she 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 holds six 800-meter times that sit within the top-10 of both the all-time indoor and outdoor collegiate performance lists. Indoors she holds the No. 4 time of 2:00.18, while outdoors she holds the No. 2 time of 1:59.08. She will be looking to better the 2021 Bowerman winner Athing Mu’s collegiate records for both indoor and outdoor this season.
The men’s edition of The Bowerman February Watch List will be released tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. CT. For more about The Bowerman, visit ustfccca.org.
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