The Bowerman: Women’s Pre-Outdoor Conference Championships Watch List

NEW ORLEANS – If April showers bring May flowers, what do collegiate records in April bring?

More excitement in the race for The Bowerman, of course.

Action this past month shook up the women’s collegiate record book with four alterations and a few more close calls. The action was dazzling enough to spin the heads of The Bowerman Advisory Committee, who collectively found 16 athletes – the most in more than two years – worthy of mention for the Women’s Pre-Outdoor Conference Championships Watch List.

Only the consensus Top-10 make the Watch List, which sees Jacious Sears of Tennessee making her debut to join nine returners: Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, JaMeesia Ford of South Carolina, Rachel Glenn of Arkansas, Jasmine Jones of Southern California, Brianna Lyston of LSU, Maia Ramsden of Harvard, Michaela Rose of LSU, Jaida Ross of Oregon and Parker Valby of Florida.

The Bowerman 2024 will be awarded in December at the USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Distin, who hails from Hanover, Jamaica, has two wins and a runner-up finish (same height as the winner) thus far outdoors. She leads this year’s outdoor collegiate list with a 1.96m (6-5) clearance that ties the No. 6 performance in outdoor collegiate history (she owns three of the Top-10 performances including efforts from previous years). Indoors, she became the first collegian to clear 2.00m (6-6¾) in winning the SEC Indoor Championships. She lost in a thrilling duel with co-Watch List member Glenn in finishing second at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where she scaled “only” 1.97m (6-5½) for the third time this past winter, with all three performances tying for the No. 5 collegiate indoor performance all-time. This is Distin’s 12th career Watch List appearance, increasing her total as the active leader among women.

Ford, who hails from Fayetteville, North Carolina, lowered her PRs in April in the 100 (11.13), 200 (22.21) and 400 (50.81), with the 200 serving as the collegiate leader. In March she scorched a 49.38 anchor leg on South Carolina’s winning 4×400 at the Florida Relays. In the winter, she won the 200 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 22.34 to become No. 7 collegian all-time indoors after earlier clocking 22.36 twice, both of which rate No. =8 among collegiate indoor performances all-time. She was undefeated at all distances indoors, including two quick 300s (35.83 is No. 2 all-time collegiately and she also ran a 36.00 that rates as No. 5 performance all-time). Ford anchored two of the three fastest 4x400s indoors, leading the Gamecocks to victories at the NCAA and SEC Indoor Championships (the latter with a split of 49.80). This is her fifth Watch List appearance.

Glenn, who hails from Long Beach, California, continues to impress in multiple events. She won her first outdoor high jump (1.90m/6-2¾) and added a PR 54.91 in the 400 hurdles that puts her No. 2 on the yearly collegiate list. She also split 50.88 on Arkansas’s collegiate-leading 4×400 of 3:26.10. She won the NCAA Indoor high jump equaling the CR of 2.00m (6-6¾) after a busy SEC Indoor Championships, in which she finished second in the high jump at 1.94m (6-4¼) in addition to taking seventh in the 60 hurdles (8.15, just off her PR 8.14), running the 200 prelims (PR 23.03) and contributing a 51.46 split on the second leg of the Razorbacks’ runner-up 4×400 relay. This is her third Watch List appearance.

Jones, who hails from Atlanta, Georgia, ran a near-PR 56.24 in the 400 hurdles to win USC’s dual meet over crosstown rival UCLA. She was undefeated by collegians in the indoor 60 hurdles, topped by winning the NCAA Indoor Championships in 7.77 to become No. 3 on the all-time collegiate over a field that had two others among the top-6 all-time collegiately. That time of 7.77 shaved a hundredth off the 7.78 she clocked as runner-up in the USATF Indoor Championships that is now the No. =7 performance all-time by a collegian. This is her fourth appearance on the Watch List.

Lyston, who hails from Portmore, Jamaica, lowered her all-conditions bests to 10.84w in the 100 and 22.35w in the 200 with a pair of wins at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. She was undefeated indoors in the 60, culminating with the NCAA Indoor title in 7.03 to become No. 2 collegian all-time behind only 2023 The Bowerman winner Julien Alfred. She had three other sub-7.10 times – 7.07 twice (one that made her previously No. =4 all-time collegiately) and a 7.08 to win the SEC Indoor Championships. This is her fifth Watch List appearance.

Ramsden, who hails from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, anchored Harvard’s CR-setting distance medley relay (10:37.55) to victory at the Penn Relays with a 4:21.47 split for 1600 meters – the fastest ever, indoors or outdoors. Two weeks earlier, she moved to No. 10 all-time collegiately in the outdoor 1500 at 4:07.30 as the top collegian in the Wake Forest Invitational, and doubled back less than an hour later to clock 15:44.36 in the 5000. During the winter she won the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships in a meet-record 4:25.13 that was also the No. 3 performance in collegiate history. She was even faster in the Women’s Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, clocking 4:24.83 for the No. 2 performance all-time by a collegian. She also was a finalist in the 1500 meters at the World Indoor Championships, missing the CR by 0.02 seconds with her 4:06.51 in the prelims, and also posted a 3k best of 8:46.84 in December that has her No. 7 on the all-time collegiate list in that event. This is her fourth Watch List appearance.

Rose, who hails from Suffolk, Virginia, made her first outdoor 800 of the year one to remember, winning the Bryan Clay Invitational by 2.77 seconds in 1:58.37 to strengthen her position as No. 2 all-time collegiately. At other distances she has run 53.16 in the 400 (plus a 51.30 split on LSU’s 3:26.55 4×400 relay), 1:25.75 in the 600 (an all-time collegiate outdoor best) and 4:12.88 in the 1500. Indoors, she set a CR (and world best) in the 600 yards at 1:16.76 before compiling three sub-2 races in the 800 that give her three of the top-5 collegiate performances all-time – her fastest of 1:59.25 to win the SEC Indoor Championships and become No. 2 collegian all-time behind only 2021 The Bowerman winner Athing Mu. Another of those sub-2 clockings earned a runner-up finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. This is her seventh career Watch List appearance.

Ross, who hails from Medford, Oregon, matched her three-week-old CR in the shot put at 19.71m (64-8) in winning the Desert Heat Classic. Her series included two additional top-10 performances: No. 6 at 19.41m (63-8¼) and No. 9 at 19.30 (63-4) as she now owns four of the top-9 among collegians. She has also PRed this year in the discus at 58.31m (191-4). Indoors, she moved to No. 9 all-time collegiately with a best of 18.84m (61-9¾) before earning runner-up honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships. This is her second career Watch List appearance.

Sears, who hails from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, bolted to a sizzling, wind-legal 10.77 in the 100 at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational, winning by 0.33 seconds. That time was just 0.02 seconds off the 10.75 CR set by 2019 The Bowerman winner Sha’Carri Richardson. Sears also leads off Tennessee’s 4×100 relay team, which has the nation’s two fastest collegiate times this year at 42.52 and 42.98, the former making the Vols the No. 7 program all-time. Indoors, she rocketed the 60 in 7.07, a low-altitude PR and a time bettered by just four collegians (including Sears with a 7.04 at high altitude last year). She is the fourth woman from Tennessee to make the Watch List, and the first since Felicia Brown in 2016.

Valby, who hails from Tampa, Florida, had a jaw-dropping debut in the 10,000, lapping the entire field at least once with a CR 30:50.43 to win the Bryan Clay Invitational. That time chopped more than 27 seconds off the previous record of 31:18.07 set in 2010 by Lisa Uhl. Valby was also dominant in the winter, winning the 5000 and 3000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships in record-setting form. In the 5k, she lowered her own CR to 14:52.79 while she came back the next day to break the meet record in the 3k at 8:51.30 in becoming No. 3 all-time collegiately indoors. Her undefeated season included the No. 2 time in the 5000 at 14:56.11 from December with the first collegiate sub-15 time indoors or outdoors, along with the No. 6 all-time indoor performance in the 3000 at 8:42.29 in winning the SEC Indoor Championships. This is her sixth career Watch List appearance.

Six athletes received votes from The Bowerman Watch List Committee but fell outside the Top 10: Kaylyn Brown of Arkansas, Jalani Davis of Ole Miss, Brynn King of Roberts Wesleyan, Doris Lemngole of Alabama, Ackelia Smith of Texas and Juliette Whittaker of Stanford.

The next women’s Watch List is scheduled for May 15.