Wruck, Carter Earn The Bowerman Fan Vote Victories

August 14, 2013

NEW ORLEANS - Track & field fans around the world have spoken: thrower Julian Wruck of UCLA and hurdler Kori Carter of Stanford won the men’s and women’s online fan votes, respectively, for The Bowerman, placing them one step closer to potentially winning the 2013 edition of collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor.

By virtue of their victories in the fan vote, both Wruck and Carter earned one full vote in the overall balloting process for the award, which will be presented December 18 during a special award show at the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Convention in Orlando, Fla. Former winners; The Bowerman Advisory Board; the USTFCCCA membership; and select media personnel, statisticians and collegiate administrators make up the rest of the full balloting process.

A total 36,589 total votes were cast between the men’s and women’s fan competitions, marking an increase of nearly 4,000 votes from 2012. The total is second only to 2011 when a record 82,949 votes were cast.

Though Wruck and Carter similarly finished their online fan vote journey in victory, the roads they took to get there could not have been more different.

Wruck emerged victorious from a tight back-and-forth battle with high jumper Derek Drouin of Indiana with a 2.01 percent margin of victory — the narrowest in The Bowerman fan vote history, surpassing Jenny Barringer’s 2.6 percent win over Porscha Lucas in 2009. Barringer (Simpson) would go on to win The Bowerman that year.

If recent history is any indicator, Wruck may be in luck as the past two winners of the men’s fan vote — Cam Levins in 2012 and Ngoni Makusha in 2011 — have gone on to take home The Bowerman Trophy in December.

After having his lead cut to fewer than 200 votes after a push of support from Drouin’s fans with approximately two hours left in the fan vote, Wruck’s supporters surged him to 8,324 total votes (40.58 percent) to Drouin’s final tally of 7,912 (38.57%). Distance runner Lawi Lalang of Arizona finished third with 4,275 votes for a 20.84 percent share.

The 20,511 total men’s votes nearly doubled last season’s fan input for the men’s competition, and is second in award history to 2011′s 41,683 votes.

While Wruck had to battle to the bitter end for his victory, Carter’s path was far clearer. Within the first week of voting, Carter pulled ahead to a commanding 50 percent share of the vote and never looked back, finishing with 8,609 votes (53.55 percent) — the most of any 2013 finalist regardless of sex.

Runner-up Brianna Rollins of Clemson jumped out to an early lead in the initial days of voting, but fell behind Carter and finished with a final tally of 4,379 (27.24 percent). Arizona high jumper Brigetta Barrett, a finalist for the second consecutive year, took third with 3,090 votes for 19.22 percent of the total.

Carter’s 26.31 percent margin of victory over Rollins is the second-largest in The Bowerman history behind Brianne Theisen (Eaton)’s win a year ago by 41.5 percent. However, Theisen would ultimately not win the overall award, which went to Kimberlyn Duncan.

Then again, history may be on Carter’s side after all, as the winner of the fan vote on odd-numbered years has gone on to claim The Bowerman starting with Barringer’s victory in 2009. Jessica Beard was the next fan vote winner to take home the Trophy in 2011.



THE BOWERMAN FINALISTS, 2013 WOMEN
Brigetta Barrett, Arizona
High Jump | Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
Season Recap & Full Bio


Barrett claimed the NCAA Division I high jump crown at both the indoor and outdoor championships, placing capstones on a season that saw her go undefeated against collegians in ten competitions en route to a new collegiate record. Her winning jump of 6-6¼ (1.99m) at the Pac-12 Championships broke the previous outdoor collegiate record of 6-6 (1.98m) held by Amy Acuff of UCLA and Kajsa Bergqvist of SMU. She also toppled Acuff’s dual meet record by a centimeter with a leap of 6-4¼ (1.94m) at the Arizona-Arizona State-Northern Arizona tri-meet.



Kori Carter, Stanford
Hurdles | Claremont, Calif.
Season Recap & Full Bio


Carter became a hurdling force to be reckoned with not only at the collegiate level but also on the world stage during her 2013 outdoor campaign, winning an NCAA Division I title in the 400 hurdles in a collegiate-record 53.21 and finishing runner-up nationally in the 100 hurdles in 12.79 — both against some of the best competition the world has to offer. She defeated 2012 Olympic finalist Georganne Moline of Arizona — who finished fifth in the 400 hurdles in London — in each of their five meetings, including both rounds of the NCAA Finals.





Brianna Rollins, Clemson
Hurdles | Miami, Fla.
Season Recap & Full Bio


Rollins ended her final year at the collegiate ranks the exact same way she started it: with a collegiate record. The Tiger hurdler set the collegiate record in the indoor 60 hurdles in her very first final of the season with a blazing 7.78 and ended her campaign with the 100 hurdles collegiate record outdoors at 12.39 (+1.7m/s) en route to an NCAA Division I title in the event. Her outdoor record came at the expense of the collegiate record of 12.47 (+1.2m/s) she had set two days earlier in the prelims. In total, her season featured five of the ten fastest times in collegiate history in the 60 hurdles; three of the seven fastest 100 hurdles all-conditions time in collegiate history; and an unbeaten streak of 17 races between the two events.



THE BOWERMAN FINALISTS, 2013 MEN
Derek Drouin, Indiana
High Jump | Corunna, Ontario (Canada)
Season Recap & Full Bio


It was a banner year for Drouin — the indoor and outdoor USTFCCCA Indoor and Outdoor National Field Athlete of the Year — as he became the first to sweep both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division I high jump titles in one academic year since he last did so in 2010. The Canadian won at heights of 7-8 (2.34m) or greater and took cracks at collegiate records at both championships. He finished unbeaten in nine collegiate high jump finals between indoors and outdoors, with his only overall loss coming in a tie with fellow The Bowerman semifinalist and rival Erik Kynard of Kansas State at the Nike Prefontaine Classic Diamond League Meeting, where both posted the No. 2 outdoor mark in collegiate history at 7-8¾ (2.36m).



Lawi Lalang, Arizona
Distance | Eldoret (Kenya)
Season Recap & Full Bio


Though Lalang did not compete as frequently as the other Finalists due to the nature of his events, he made every race count with four NCAA Division I individual titles — two indoors and two outdoors — two NCAA DI Indoor Championships records, four all-time collegiate top-10 marks indoors in two different events, and a 2013 collegiate-best at 1500 meters, an event he elected not to run at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships. He swept both the mile and 3000 meter races at the indoor championships and took both the 5000 and 10,000 meter events at the outdoor championships, joining 2009 The Bowerman winner Galen Rupp of Oregon and Suleiman Nyambui of UTEP in 1982 and ’83 as the only male runners to win four individual NCAA DI distance titles in one academic year.



Julian Wruck, UCLA
Discus | Brisbane, Queensland (Australia)
Season Recap & Full Bio


A national contender and 2011 champion in the discus in his days at Texas Tech prior to his transfer to UCLA, junior Julian Wruck had a breakthrough year in a big way in 2013, re-writing the record books en route to his second NCAA title in the discus. He finished the season not only undefeated but nearly untouchable in eight collegiate events in 2013, registering the top 27 throws by any collegian in 2013. He officially owns four of the top 10 throws in collegiate history and is No. 4 all-time at 217-7 (66.32m), and produced an all-time collegiate best 223-7 (68.16m) mark at an exhibition throws meet among four other throws that would have ranked in the all-time collegiate top-10.





WINNER SELECTION PROCESS
The Bowerman Voters will receive ballots listing each of the finalists and must rank them by first, second and third choice. First-place votes will receive three points, second place will notch two, and third will receive one point. The finalist with the highest point total will be declared the winner.

The Bowerman Voters consist of:

The Bowerman Advisory Board (10 members)
Select media personnel, statisticians, and collegiate administrators
Galen Rupp, 2009 men’s winner of The Bowerman
Ashton Eaton, 2010 men’s winner of The Bowerman
Ngoni Makusha, 2011 men’s winner of The Bowerman
Cam Levins, 2012 men’s winner of The Bowerman
Jenny (Barringer) Simpson, 2009 women’s winner of The Bowerman
Queen Harrison, 2010 women’s winner of The Bowerman
Jessica Beard, 2011 women’s winner of The Bowerman
Kimberlyn Duncan, 2012 women’s winner of The Bowerman
Online voting by the public will constitute one collective vote (ranking of choices will be made by order of total single votes)
Online voting by USTFCCCA members will constitute one collective vote (ranking of choices will be made by order of total single votes)
Paper balloting will conclude in the coming weeks while online voting will begin on Monday, July 29 and will last until Tuesday, August 13. An independent accounting firm will collect, tabulate, and certify final results and will keep the result secret until the envelope is opened in December.



ABOUT THE BOWERMAN
The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation.

Southern Utah’s Cam Levins and LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan are the reigning winners of The Bowerman, which is named for legendary Oregon track & field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman.

Past winners include Olympic gold medalist and decathlon world-record holder Ashton Eaton (2010), 10,000-meter Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp (2009), and 2011 IAAF World Champion at 1500 meters, Jenny Simpson (2009).

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.

For more information on The Bowerman, the award, the trophy and Bill Bowerman himself, visit TheBowerman.org.



ABOUT THE USTFCCCA
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) is a non-profit professional organization representing cross country and track & field coaches of all levels. The organization represents over 8,000 coaching members encompassing 94% of all NCAA track & field programs (DI, DII, and DIII) and includes members representing the NAIA as well as a number of state high school coaches associations. The USTFCCCA serves as an advocate for cross country and track & field coaches, providing a leadership structure to assist the needs of a diverse membership, serving as a lobbyist for coaches’ interests, and working as a liaison between the various stakeholders in the sports of cross country and track & field.




U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association
1100 Poydras Street, Suite 1750
New Orleans, LA 70163

Contact: Kyle Terwillegar
Communications Assistant
kyle@ustfccca.org
(504) 599-8905