NEW ORLEANS – The USTFCCCA released The Bowerman Women’s Preseason Watch List on Wednesday, 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.
Senior Michaela Rose is on the preseason watch list for the second straight year and named to the watch list for the 10th time; she is the active leader in the category. Junior Brianna Lyston is named to the preseason watch list for the first time, and she was on the watch list seven times in 2024.
The LSU women’s program now has had at least two on the watch list for nine straight releases, dating back to last year’s preseason release that included Rose and Alia Armstrong.
Lyston is fresh off of a historic indoor and outdoor 2024 season where she claimed LSU’s lone NCAA title in the 60-meter race indoors. With the LSU record and NCAA No. 2 all-time recording of 7.03 seconds in the NCAA winning race, the Jamaican was named USTFCCCA South Central Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and First Team All-American. In conference, Lyston was also able to snag the 60-meter title at the SEC Indoor Championships and First Team All-SEC honors before going outdoors. All the accolades indoors combined nicely with her undefeated record across 60m in her first full indoor season.
As a sophomore last season, Lyston left no crumbs when it came to the outdoor season, as she doubled her historic indoor season with one of the best sprint seasons in LSU history. The Tiger was a two-time First Team All-American (100m, 4×100) and one-time Second Team (200m) at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which included a runner-up finish in the 100-meter final where she clocked 10.89w seconds. She also helped the LSU 4×100-meter relay team to a runner-up finish and closed her 200-meter season in the semifinals. At the start of the outdoor postseason, she led the Tigers to their 26th SEC women’s title with a team-high 16.5 points at the SEC Outdoor Championships. At the conference meet, she clocked an LSU No. 4 and NCAA No. 10 time of 10.91 seconds in the 100m final to claim her second SEC title of the 2024 campaign. She also helped the 4×100 to bronze with 42.49, which ranked her unit No. 4 in LSU history.
Lyston and the wind did not get along most of the season, holding her back from putting up truly historic numbers. She clocked the fastest collegiate 100m opener regardless of conditions with 10.87w, which was her first time running the 100m since high school (725 total days). She also ran an all-conditions time of 10.84 seconds (+2.2 m/s) that was barely over the legal limit at the LSU Alumni Gold meet.
The other big name on The Bowerman List is the former semifinalist and a barrier-breaking middle-distance runner for LSU, Michaela Rose. The senior returns in 2025 on a mission to claim the indoor and outdoor titles, along with breaking the legendary Athing Mu’s (Texas A&M) NCAA 800-meter records.
Since the 2023 season, Rose has clocked 10 sub-two-minute races in the 800m (not including three outside of the collegiate season), which the next closest runner has only accomplished sub-two minutes three times total in their collegiate career (Raevyn Rogers, Oregon). Her top 800-meter time outdoors comes in at 1:58.37, which is No. 2 in collegiate history, just behind Mu’s 1:57.73. Rose’s indoor PR of 1:59.25 also ranks No. 2 in collegiate history behind Mu’s 1:58.40 indoor best.
In 2024, Rose was a three-time First Team All-American and had an extra Second Team honor to go with that trip. Indoors she finished runner-up at the NCAA Championships and collected another SEC title in the 800m. The Tiger was named the SEC Indoor Co-Runner of the Year.
Two of the biggest moments of her 2024 season came in collegiate-record form. Indoors, Rose clocked a collegiate record of 1:16.76 in the 600 yard at the Corky Classic to finish first, earning her USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week honors. Rose opened the outdoor season with a collegiate record of 1:25.75 in the 600 meter at the Keyth Talley Invitational also.
On top of it all in 2024, Rose became the third LSU woman to have a perfect watch-list season, joining 2012 winner Kimberlyn Duncan and 2021 semifinalist Tonea Marshall.
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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