Mookie Salaam Moves Back to The Bowerman’s Men’s Watch List

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Mookie Salaam Moves Back to The Bowerman’s Men’s Watch List

Oklahoma sprinter swept Big 12 titles at 100 and 200 meters



May 18, 2011



NEW ORLEANS – The Bowerman Men’s Watch Committee in conjunction with the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced on Wednesday their sixth update of the men’s watch list for collegiate track & field’s biggest award – The Bowerman. In this update, Oklahoma’s Mookie Salaam rejoins the watch list after a spectacular weekend at the Big 12 Championships.



Salaam captured conference titles in the 100 and 200 meters, adding to an indoor grab of league crowns in the 60 and 200 earlier in the year. Salaam left no doubt in his 200-meter conquest as he sailed to a 20.05 meet-record clocking – the second-best in the world in 2011. Salaam also won the NCAA indoor 200-meter national title in 2011.



The Bowerman Advisory Board appointed four of its members to comprise The Bowerman Men’s Watch Committee and another four of its members to make up The Bowerman Women’s Watch Committee. The committee will release their next men’s update on Wednesday, June 1, a week prior to the final rounds of the NCAA Division I Championships. The ten semifinalists will be named on Monday, June 20, and the three finalists will be named on Wednesday, July 13.



THE BOWERMAN OFFICIAL WATCH LIST 2011 MEN

(updated May 18, 2011, listed in alphabetical order, always ten names)



NAME
YEAR
SCHOOL
EVENTS
HOMETOWN

Jeshua Anderson
SR
Washington State
Hurdles
Woodland Hills, Calif.

Miles Batty
JR
BYU
Distance
Sandy, Utah

Sam Chelanga
RS SR
Liberty
Distance
Nairobi, Kenya

Will Claye
JR
Florida
Jumps
Phoenix, Ariz.

Jeff Demps
SO/JR
Florida
Sprints
Winter Garden, Fla.

Kirani James
SO
Alabama
Sprints
Gouyave, Grenada

Ngonidzashe Makusha
JR
Florida State
Jumps/Sprints
Zimbabwe

Omo Osaghae
SR
Texas Tech
Hurdles
Lubbock, Texas

Mookie Salaam (P)
JR
Oklahoma
Sprints
Edmond, Okla.

Christian Taylor
JR
Florida
Jumps
Fayetteville, Ga.




(P) – Promoted from “receiving mention” list this update

(N) – New to either list this update



Jeshua Anderson, Washington State

Senior, Hurdles, Woodland Hills, Calif. (Taft HS)



OUTDOOR: Anderson won his fourth-straight Pac-10 Conference title in the 400 hurdles in dramatic fashion, clocking a personal-best 48.13 to win by over a second. The time not only is the second-best in the world so far in 2011, it moves Anderson to the all-time collegiate top five in the event. Also at the Pac-10 meet, Anderson finished fourth in the 110 hurdles in 13.88 after running a personal-best 13.78 in the preliminary. The Cougars also finished second in the conference 4x400 with Anderson as the anchor



Anderson finished third at the Texas Relays in the 400 hurdles and anchored his 4x400-relay team to victory at the Mt. SAC Relays (3:07.87). Anderson was also the winner of the 110-meter hurdles in a dual at Washington.



INDOOR: His indoor season best in the 400-meter dash of 46.93 placed him in the collegiate top 35. The outdoor season is where Anderson is expected to shine when he can compete in his specialty event – the 400-meter hurdles.





Miles Batty, BYU

Junior, Distance, Sandy, Utah (Jordan HS)



OUTDOOR: In his first 1500-meter race of the season at the Mt. SAC Relays, Batty finished behind two pros, but clocked 3:36.25, three seconds ahead of all collegians. The time is the fastest to be claimed by a collegian since 1995 and is the fifth-best all-time. At the Penn Relays, Batty anchored BYU to a third-place finish in the DMR and fifth-place showing in the 4x800. At the Mountain West Championships, Batty claimed the league’s 1500-meter title (3:56.62A) and placed sixth in the 800 meters.



INDOOR: Batty, the USTFCCCA’s National Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, spurred BYU’s run to the podium for a third-place team finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships with national titles in the mile and as anchor of the squad’s DMR team. Batty was one of two to finish the national mile final in sub-four fashion as he topped Tulsa’s Chris O’Hare for the national crown with a 3:59.49 clocking. Batty, the day previous, led the Cougars to their first national crown in the DMR since 1978, holding off fast closing Indiana and Minnesota, with a 3:56.14, 1600-meter anchor split. The relay’s time of 9:29.28 is the seventh-best in collegiate history.



Batty was the Mountain West Conference mile champion (4:15.23) and again was anchor of the BYU crew to a DMR conference title. Batty notched the fastest mile time of the collegiate season with a 3:55.79 run to win the Flotrack Husky Classic on Washington’s oversized track.





Sam Chelanga, Liberty

RS Senior, Distance, Nairobi, Kenya (Bartolimo HS/Fairleigh Dickinson)



OUTDOOR: Opened the season with a win in the 10,000 meters at the Raleigh Relays in a then-collegiate-leading time of 28:15.64. Chelanga currently sits third on the collegiate list for 2011. Chelanga’s only other race so far this year came on April 30 when he won the 5000 at the Radford Highlander Invitational in 14:02.57.



INDOOR: At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Chelanga placed runner-up in the 5000 meters to Iona’s Leonard Korir with a 13:27.34 clocking. Chelanga, finished 15th overall at the NCAA meet in the 3000. In his first 5k of the indoor season, Chelanga recorded a then world-leading time of 13:41.35 on his home 200-meter, flat track on January 29. Chelanga notched a would-be collegiate leader of 7:48.24 in the 3000 meters at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix where he finished fourth in a professional-loaded field. In addition, Chelanga tallied a 7:50.92 clocking at 3000 meters in placing fifth overall at the Flotrack Husky Classic. Chelanga added to his tally of Big South Championships with a mile crown (4:16.88) this season.





Will Claye, Florida

Junior, Jumps, Phoenix, Ariz. (Mountain Pointe HS/Oklahoma)



OUTDOOR: Claimed an impressive double win at the SEC Championships with crowns in the long and triple jumps. In the long jump, Claye bested a field that had six performers over 26 feet with a personal-best, third-round jump of 27-2½ (8.29m, 1.9 m/s), marking one of his two jumps over eight meters in the competition. Claye’s best moved him to second on the performers list in the world for the year. The following day, Claye won the league title in the triple jump with a wind-aided mark of 56-6¾ (17.24m). Another jump in the series was a wind-legal 56-2¾ (17.14m) for Claye’s new personal best.



Claye finished third at the Penn Relays long jump. Also at the Penn Relays, Claye was the leadoff leg for the Gators’ 4x200 relay that finished third.



INDOOR: At the NCAA indoor meet, Claye left his best for the last attempt in the triple jump. After five rounds, Claye had the lead at 55-8¼ (16.967m), but teammate and defending champ Christian Taylor staked his claim for the crown on his final attempt with a jump of 55-9 (16.99m). Claye responded with the event’s final salvo with a mark of 56-10 (17.32m) to win the national crown, set a new personal best, land as the all-time fourth-best collegiate performer in the event, and reset the NCAA meet record by a centimeter.



Adding to the national triple jump crown, Claye finished second in the long jump at the NCAA meet with a personal best of 26-4½ (8.04).



Claye landed a mark of 56-4 (17.17m) achieved in finishing runner up to teammate Christian Taylor at the SEC Championships. Claye added a third-place showing in the long jump at the SEC meet, placing behind only Arkansas’ Tarik Batchelor and LSU’s Zedric Thomas – both members of the national top five of the event this year.





Jeff Demps, Florida

Sophomore (indoor)/Junior (outdoor), Sprints, Winter Garden, Fla. (South Lake HS)



OUTDOOR: Demps false started in the 100 meters at the SEC Championships, but redeemed himself by anchoring the Gators’ 4x100 to a conference victory and collegiate-leading time of 38.83. Prior to the SEC Championships, Demps won two 100-meter races with slightly wind-aided times of 10.07 and 9.96. The latter came at Florida’s Tom Jones Memorial and is a mark that is the all-conditions collegiate-leader this season and will place him as the No. 1 seed going into the preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championships. Demps also anchored Florida’s 4x100 to a 38.91 for second place at the Penn Relays.



INDOOR: Demps claimed his second-straight NCAA indoor 60-meter title with a personal-best run in the finals of 6.53 seconds. Demps is the first back-to-back NCAA indoor short-sprint champ since DaBryan Blanton of Oklahoma in 2004 and 2005.



After opening the season with a 6.57 in winning the Virginia Tech Elite, Demps has four times more clocked sub-6.60 in the 60 meters, including when he won the SEC title in the event for the second-straight year with a 6.55.





Kirani James, Alabama

Sophomore, Sprints, Gouyave, Grenada



OUTDOOR: Won the SEC title in the 400 meters with a personal-best time of 44.86. The time is second-best among collegians this year (Tabarie Henry, Texas A&M, 44.83) and is tied for third in the world for 2011. James also ran the second-leg of Alabama’s 4x400 relay (3:07.87) that placed a close second to Mississippi State (3:07.65). Earlier in the year, with a 20.41 clocking in the 200 meters at the UTEP Invitational, James finished the regular season with a national top-ten time in that event.



INDOOR: Prior to the NCAA Indoor Championships, on every occasion in which he has stepped on the track for the 400 meters during the 2011 indoor season, Kirani James set a new world leader. Starting on Feb. 12 when he ran 45.47 (oversized) to win Notre Dame Meyo Invitational, then on Feb. 26 for the preliminary round of the SEC Championships when he ran 45.37. And, for the trifecta, James, who is only 18, clocked 44.80 in the SEC final to not only set another world record, but it also set a new world junior all-time best. The time places him in the top five of the all-time world indoor list and only Kerron Clement’s (Florida)world record of 44.57 set in 2005 stands as a better all-time collegiate mark.



At the NCAA meet, James tripped and fell shortly after completing the first lap of the qualifying round and did not finish the race.





Ngonidzashe Makusha, Florida State

Junior, Jumps/Sprints, Zimbabwe (Mandedza HS)



OUTDOOR: A three-event winner at the ACC Outdoor Championships with titles in the 100 meters, long jump, and as second leg of the 4x100 relay. The 100-meter conference title was won in a collegiate-leading time of 9.97. To win the Texas Relays title in the long jump, Makusha claimed an all-conditions collegiate leading jump of 27-6¾ (8.40m) to win by over a foot. At the Florida State Twilight on May 6, Makusha recorded three wind-aided marks of over eight meters and had a wind-aided best of 27-4¾ (8.35m) to win by a wide margin.



INDOOR: Won his first NCAA indoor long jump crown to go with two outdoor crowns with a fourth-round winning leap of 26-8½ (8.14m). Makusha won the event by four inches over Florida’s Will Claye. Makusha claimed the collegiate season’s best mark of 26-9 (8.15m) in winning his second ACC indoor crown in the event.





Omo Osaghae, Texas Tech

Senior, Hurdles, Lubbock, Texas (Monterey HS)



OUTDOOR: Osaghae won the Big 12 title and topped the championships record in the 110 hurdles with a personal-best 13.23 clocking to win by three-tenths of a second. The time moved him to third among all performers in the world this season, is the wind-legal collegiate leader for the year, and placed him inside the all-time collegiate top five.



Osaghae won 110-meter hurdle titles at the Penn and Mt. SAC Relays. But, it was at the Texas Tech Open where he would run a wind-aided 13.18 (altitude). All told, Osaghae has won seven hurdle titles this season. Additionally, Texas Tech claimed the title in the shuttle hurdle relay at the Penn Relays in a time of 54.67 with Osaghae as the leadoff man. The time moved Texas Tech to No. 4 all-time in the event.



INDOOR: With no indoor eligibility remaining, Osaghae competed unattached through the indoor season. Osaghae managed a breakthrough in the 60-meter hurdles as he won the USATF Indoor title in the event at altitude in 7.52.





Mookie Salaam, Oklahoma

Junior, Sprints, Edmond, Okla. (North HS)



OUTDOOR: Salaam claimed Big 12 titles in the 100 and 200 meters with runs of 10.23 and 20.05, respectively. The 20.05, a conference meet-record, in the 200 is the No. 2 performance in the world so far in 2011 and stands as the collegiate leader. Salaam won the Big 12 crown in the 200 by 34 hundredths of a second. For Oklahoma, Salaam also placed fourth with the 4x100 relay and seventh with the 4x400 and ended the league meet as the high-point scorer. Salaam’s wind-aided time of 10.19 in the conference preliminary gained him a top-20 national seed for the NCAA meet in the 100 meters.



Salaam won the 100-meter title at the Drake Relays (10.20).



INDOOR: Salaam won the NCAA indoor title at 200 meters with one of the closest finishes possible. Florida State’s Maurice Mitchell clocked 20.41 in section one of the national final, and Salaam matched that mark in winning section two. When the times were examined closer to the thousandths, Salaam got the nod over Mitchell with official times of 20.401 to 20.403. Salaam would run a world’s season best time in the preliminaries earlier in that same evening in posting a 20.39 time, moving the Sooner to the all-time collegiate top ten in the process.



Salaam also placed eighth at the NCAA’s 60-meter final and appeared to be suffering some sort of injury. The previous day, Salaam recorded the fastest time in the preliminary round of 6.55, ironically two-thousandths better than Mitchell again (6.546 to 6.548). Salaam would run sub-6.60 in the 60 five times during the season, including when he completed the 60-200 double at the Big 12 Indoor Championships and won the 60 at the Tyson Invitational.





Christian Taylor, Florida

Junior, Jumps, Fayetteville, Ga. (Sandy Creek HS)



OUTDOOR: Taylor finished the regular season with NCAA top-ten seeds in the 400 meters, long jump, and triple jump. In only his second triple jump competition of the outdoor season, Taylor finished second to teammate Claye at the SEC Championships with a wind-legal, personal-best jump of 56-3¼ (17.15m) on his third attempt. The jump ranks second among all collegians in 2011 and sixth in the world. Taylor passed on his final three attempts in the triple jump to run on Florida’s conference-champion 4x100 relay squad. With Taylor as the second-leg, the Gators recorded a collegiate-leading time of 38.53. Taylor also led off Florida’s 4x400 relay to a third-place finish. Taylor also finished fourth at the SEC meet in the long jump with a 26-3 (8.00m) season-best leap – a mark that is among the top ten in the NCAA this year.



As a quarter-miler to open the season, Taylor claimed a win at the Florida Relays in the 400 meters, clocking a 45.46 that ranks eighth in the NCAA this season. Taylor has also tried various sprinting distances through the season and has been a member of several relay teams, including 4x100 (preliminaries), 4x200, and sprint medley squads at the Penn Relays. Florida’s 4x200 finished third and the sprint medley took second at the meet.



INDOOR: Taylor sent quite a message in winning the SEC Championship triple jump on his final attempt. With a mark of 56-11½ (17.36m) that not only won the event for the third-straight time and set a new SEC record, he became the third all-time best collegian indoors in the event. Only Charlie Simpkins (Baptist, 17.50m, 57-5, 1986) and Mike Conley (Arkansas, 17.40m, 57-1, 1985) have jumped farther in indoor collegiate history than Taylor. The Gator also finished eighth at the SEC meet in the long jump and has a season’s best in the event of 25-0 (7.62m), good for the national top 25.



Taylor placed second at the NCAA meet to teammate Claye with a last-round best of 55-9 (16.99m).



ALSO RECEIVING MENTION (19)



NAME
YEAR
SCHOOL
EVENTS
HOMETOWN

Robby Andrews (D)
SO
Virginia
Distance
Englishtown, N.J.

Andy Bayer
RS SO
Indiana
Distance
Leo, Ind.

Charles Clark
SR (out)
Florida State
Sprints
Virginia Beach, Va.

Derek Drouin
JR
Indiana
Jumps
Corunna, Ontario

German Fernandez
JR/SO
Oklahoma State
Distance
Riverbank, Calif.

Mason Finley
SO
Kansas
Throws
Salida, Colo.

Eric Flores
SR
Cal Lutheran
Throws
Custer, S.D.

Marquise Goodwin
SO
Texas
Jumps/Sprints
Garland, Texas

Leford Green
JR
Johnson C. Smith
Sprints
St. Catherine, Jamaica

Walter Henning
SR
LSU
Throws
Kings Park, N.Y.

Tabarie Henry
SR
Texas A&M
Sprints
U.S. Virgin Islands

Leonard Korir
JR
Iona
Distance
Iten, Kenya

Erik Kynard
SO
Kansas State
Jumps
Toledo, Ohio

Torrin Lawrence
JR
Georgia
Sprints
Jacksonville, Fla.

Marcel Lomnicky
JR
Virginia Tech
Throws
Nitra, Slovakia

Maurice Mitchell
JR
Florida State
Sprints
Kansas City, Mo.

Demetrius Pinder
SR
Texas A&M
Sprints
Freeport, Bahamas

Dorian Ulrey
SR
Arkansas
Distance
Port Byron, Ill.

Craig Van Leeuwen
JR
Ramapo
Pole Vault
Little River Falls, N.J.




(D) – demoted from the watch list this update

(N) – new to either list this update



For more information on The Bowerman, the award, the magnificent trophy, and Bill Bowerman himself, visit TheBowerman.org. Keep up with Bowerman candidates on the USTFCCCA’s weekly results page (http://www.ustfccca.org/weekly-results) and by following the organization’s twitter feed twitter.com/TheBowerman and Facebook page facebook.com/TheBowerman.



About The Bowerman



The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the top male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation. Oregon's Ashton Eaton and Virginia Tech’s Queen Harrison are the reigning winners of The Bowerman, which is named for legendary Oregon track & field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman.



Bowerman served the sport of track and field in numerous ways. His leadership in the USTFCCCA’s predecessor organization, the National Collegiate Track Coaches Association, and his contributions to NCAA track and field and the running community as a whole are among his many lasting legacies.









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U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association

Communications Manager

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