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.

Written by Bobby Reyes, edits & additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin Grand Canyon University (GCU) has wasted no time getting off the start line. Earlier this week, it was announced that GCU will be leaving the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and joining the Mountain West Conference in the 2025-2026 academic year. The move comes a year earlier than planned as the Mountain West Conference attempts to recover from losing numerous members of their own. The swift inclusion of Grand Canyon comes as a result of several Mountain West schools departing for the PAC-12 over the last year. This fall, the Mountain West Conference will include schools such as Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, Las Vegas (UNLV), Utah State, Wyoming and now, Grand Canyon. However, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State will all depart the Mountain West Conference at the end of the upcoming academic year to join the PAC-12. Last year, New Mexico's cross country program dominated the Mountain West Conference, with men’s and women’s squads sweeping the conference championships. Their men's team tallied a perfect 15 points. At the NCAA XC Championships, the Lobos women placed 7th at the NCAA XC Championships, while the men placed 9th. During the 2024 cross country season, Grand Canyon fielded a men's team at the West Regional XC Championships. There, they finished 25th out of 31 teams. The Lopes did not field a women's team. At the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) XC Championships, the Lopes finished 8th (out of nine teams) in both the men's and women's races. While it looks like the Mountain West Conference will be an uphill battle for GCU on the grass, they'll still have stellar guidance -- their cross country team is coached by Shayla Houlihan, a woman who has a fairly impressive running resume of her own . Houlihan brings vast elite experience -- both as an athlete and as a coach -- to the Lopes. The 2025-26 academic year will be her second at the helm of the program. Thankfully for Grand Canyon, the Lopes will have a shot at making an impact on the track during their time in the Mountain West Conference. Between indoor track and outdoor track, their men’s team has won 13 conference titles since 2016, traditionally tallying most of their points in the sprint events. Since 2014, their women's team has won 10 conference titles between both indoor track and outdoor track. Last month, they sent Cam Wilmington to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. There, he placed 20th overall in the 400-meter hurdles.

Production via Wyatt Barnsley On this week’s episode of The Stride Report Podcast, Ben and Garrett break down the headline move of Ishmael Kipkurui turning pro with Nike! The guys also touch on other pro announcements, analyze the women’s and men’s award races for The Bowerman, and highlight major transfers including Bahiya El Arfaoui to Oregon, Reese Sharman-Newell to Texas A&M, and Kirk Dawkins to Iowa State. Plus, the guys take a deep dive into the NCAA settlement and what it could mean for the future of college track and field. Be sure to listen, subscribe and review! (2:49) Ishmael Kipkurui Turns Pro With Nike (7:17) Other Pro News (11:27) Women’s Bowerman Nominees (14:43) Men’s Bowerman Contenders  (19:40) Bahiya El Arfaoui Transfers to Oregon (23:45) Reese Sharman-Newell Heading to Texas A&M (26:31) Kirk Dawkins Transfers to Iowa State (28:25) NCAA Settlement You can listen to that episode (and others) on our PODCASTS  page! You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud. If you like it, be sure to leave us a rating  and a review ! Note: If you're having issues loading the episode on the site via mobile, try refreshing  the episode page. We will look into this issue for future episodes.