Brown named a semifinalist for The Bowerman award
NEW ORLEANS,
La.— Arkansas sophomore NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field champion 100-meter hurdler Janeek Brown has been named 1 of 10 semifinalists for The Bowerman, the top individual award in college track & field as announced Wednesday by the U.S.
Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
The Bowerman is presented to the top male and female athlete in indoors and outdoors track & field, and Brown has a strong body of work from these past indoor/ outdoor seasons to make the argument that The Bowerman belongs in the track capital of the world.
Brown, a sophomore from Kingston, Jamaica, won the 100-meter hurdles at last weekend’s NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, and surpassed the great Jackie Joyner-kersee with the best one-day total in the 100-meter hurdles/200meters.
She started the final day of the NCAA meet by running the third leg on the Razorback 4×100-meter relay that would finish fourth in 42.79, after setting a program record in the prelims with a time of 42.65. Her next run would be historic, as Brown became the first Razorback to win an NCAA Championship in the 100-meter hurdles matching the second fastest time in collegiate history stopping the clock at 12.40 seconds, a mere one one-hundredth of a second off Clemson’s Brianna Rollins’ record of 12.39 from 2013.
Brown would run once more as she took fourth place in the 200 meters in a program record time of 22.40 that broke the school record mark of 22.41 set by Veronica Campbell-brown in 2004. Her time of 22.40 also gave her
the world’s best one-day total (34.80) in the 100-meter hurdles/200 meters that eclipsed Jackie Joyner-kersee’s mark of 35.01 (12.71/22.30) from 1988.
During the indoor season, Brown was a First-team Allamerican in the 60-meter hurdles.
Brown is Arkansas’ fourth semifinalist in program history (Tina Sutej, Jarrion Lawson, Dominique Scott) and the first sprinter and hurdler from the University of Arkansas to make it on the list. Finalists for The Bowerman will be announced Wednesday, June 19, and The Bowerman will be awarded in December at the annual USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando, Florida.
Brown now trains for the Jamaican Trials trying to represent Jamaica at the World Outdoor Championships in Qatar.