Fred Kerley and Raevyn Rogers Win Close Contests for The Bowerman Fan Vote

By Adam Kopet, DyeStat Editor

The USTFCCCA announced the results of fan voting for the 2017 The Bowerman award Monday. Fan voting closed Friday for both men's and women's The Bowerman finalists.

Fred Kerley won the fan vote over Christian Coleman with 40.8 percent of the vote to Coleman's 38.8 percent. Lindon Victor was third with 20.4 percent.

Both Kerley and Victor finished their senior seasons at Texas A&M. Coleman turned pro after his junior year at Tennessee.

Kerley broke the collegiate record in the 400 meters with a best of 43.70. He won NCAA titles indoors and outdoors.

Coleman won the short sprints indoors and outdoors. He tied the indoor collegiate record in the 60 meters at 6.45 and finished 0.01 seconds off the indoor collegiate record in the 200 meters. Outdoors, Coleman went on to shatter the collegiate 100-meter record, running 9.82.

Victor twice broke the collegiate record in the decathlon. He finished with a best of 8,539 points. He won both the indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon at the NCAA Championships.

The women's The Bowerman fan voting was much closer. Only four percentage points separated the three finalists. Raevyn Rogers of Oregon won the fan vote with 35.5 percent. Keturah Orji of Georgia, last year's fan vote winner, was second with 33.0 percent and Maggie Ewen of Arizona State was third with 31.5 percent.

Rogers broke the collegiate record in the 800 meters, running 1:59.10 at the Mt. SAC Relays. She also was on collegiate record-setting indoor distance medley relay and outdoor 4x400 relay teams. She won NCAA titles in the 800 meters both indoors and outdoors and anchored the Oregon women in the 4x400 relay to win the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships team title.

Orji dominated the jumps. She swept indoor and outdoor NCAA triple jump titles. She also finished third in the long jump indoors and second outdoors, scoring valuable team points for Georgia.

Ewen had a breakout season in the hammer. She threw big early, but saved her best for the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships, winning in a collegiate record 240-7 (73.32m). She also finished second in the discus and sixth in the shot put.

The winners of the 2017 The Bowerman award will be announced in December.