The Bowerman: 2025 Men's & Women's Finalists Announced

---

Written by Kevin Fischer & Morgan Boonshaft

Edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin

---

USTFCCCA has officially announced the men's and women's finalists for The Bowerman, the most prestigious individual award in collegiate track and field.

On the men's side, Jordan Anthony of Arkansas, Nathaniel Ezekiel of Baylor and Ja'Kobe Tharp of Auburn were the three athletes to make the final cut. On the women's side, the finalists were Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico, Doris Lemngole of Alabama and Savannah Sutherland of Michigan.

Men's Finalists

Arkansas' Jordan Anthony was the NCAA champion over 60 meters this past winter and over 100 meters this past spring. He also placed 3rd over 200 meters at the outdoor national meet, and anchored the Razorbacks' 3rd place 4x100-meter relay, effectively scoring 16.5 points of his team's 40 points.

Anthony's 9.75 performance over 100 meters, which featured a 2.1 m/s tailwind at the West Regional Championships, was faster than the official NCAA record. He also tied with Andre deGrasse for the second fastest all-time performance under all conditions.

Baylor's Nathaniel Ezekiel was the indoor national meet runner-up over 400 meters, but reached a new level of dominance over hurdles. After winning the BIG 12 title by over a second, he comfortably won the 4000meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In turn, he set a Nigerian national record of 47.49, the fifth-fastest time run in the world this year.

The NCAA indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles, Auburn's Ja'Kobe Tharp faced some adversity during the outdoor track season, falling to Texas' Kendrick Smallwood in the 110-meter hurdles at the SEC Outdoor Championships. However, Tharp executed perfectly at the outdoor national meet to bring home the 110-meter hurdles title. His personal bests of 7.45 seconds in the 600meter hurdles and 13.05 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles both came in national meet finals. Both of those marks also rank at NCAA #5 all-time.

A notable absence from the list of finalists was California's Mykolas Alekna. The future Oregon graduate transfer set a world record in the discus throw at 75.56 meters this April. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Alekna was upset in the discus by Radford Mullings of Oklahoma, whose throw of 69.31 meters was good for NCAA #2 all-time behind Alekna's world record mark.

Women's Finalists

A freshman distance phenom, New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei is coming off of an undefeated outdoor track season, winning NCAA titles in both the 5000 meters and the 10,000 meters. Her 10k national title win came in a meet record time of 31:17. However, her mark of 31:02 from Sound Running's The TEN sits at NCAA #2 all-time.

Kosgei also ran 14:52 for 5000 meters at the Bryan Clay Invitational earlier in the season, winning the race, but narrowly missing out on the collegiate record by just 0.27 seconds. Kosgei is only the fifth woman in NCAA history to win the 10k/5k double at the same NCAA Outdoor Championships. She now becomes the fourth freshman woman to ever be named as a finalist for The Bowerman.

Alabama's Doris Lemngole, a sophomore steeplechaser, enters the final round of voting after rewriting the NCAA record books. She broke the collegiate steeplechase record twice this spring, ultimately clocking a best of 8:58 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. That mark made her the 14th woman in world history to ever break the nine-minute barrier in the 3000-meter steeplechase (she is now one of 15 women). Lemngole sits at World #11 all-time in the event.

At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Lemngole also won the indoor 5k national title this past winter before finishing runner-up over 3000 meters. That same season, Lemngole ran times of 8:41 (3k) and 14:52 (5k), the former of which sits at NCAA #5 all-time while her latter mark narrowly set a new indoor 5k record.

Rounding out the finalists is Michigan's Savannah Sutherland. The Wolverine veteran produced one of the greatest 400-meter hurdles seasons ever. Sutherland won her second NCAA title in a collegiate record time of 52.46. She remained undefeated (individually) for the entirety of the outdoor track season.

Her sub-53.00 mark in the 400-meter hurdles puts her at World #9 on the all-time list and World #3 for the current season. She is the first Michigan athlete to be selected as a finalist for The Bowerman.

Sutherland also played a key role on Michigan's 4x400-meter relay squad, running 50.71 to clock the fastest second leg of the race.

* * *

Fan voting opens on July 8th at 4:00pm EST and will close on July 10th at 2:00pm EST. Each online submission counts as one collective fan ballot toward the final tally, which also includes votes from media members, college administrators and past winners.

The men's and women's winners of The Bowerman will be announced on December 18th at the USTFCCCA Convention in Grapevine, Texas.