Steiner becomes Wildcats’ first winner and fourth straight women’s selection from SEC by prevailing against Cal’s Rogers and Florida’s Hall, with Cunningham edging Owens-Delerme of Arkansas to join 2011 Seminoles honoree Makusha

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Abby Steiner became the first competitor in Kentucky history to win the Bowerman award and Trey Cunningham brought the top honor in track and field back to Tallahassee, joining 2011 selection Ngoni Makusha as winners representing Florida State following the annual ceremony Thursday night at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colo.

INTERVIEWS

Steiner, a two-time World Championship gold medalist and four-time collegiate record holder, was the recipient of the women’s award, after Keni Harrison (2015) and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (2018) were only Bowerman finalists representing Kentucky.

Steiner, a four-time NCAA champion, prevailed against World silver medalist and three-time NCAA Division 1 hammer throw champion Camryn Rogers of Cal, along with global bronze medalist and NCAA outdoor winner in the heptathlon, plus Division 1 indoor champion Anna Hall of Florida.

Steiner’s selection marked the fourth consecutive time that the Southeastern Conference has produced the women’s Bowerman winner, following Athing Mu of Texas A&M last year, Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU in 2019 and Keturah Orji from Georgia in 2018.

The longest run of success for Bowerman men’s winners from one conference in the history of the award is also from the SEC, which produced four consecutive recipients from 2014-17.

Cunningham, the World Championships silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, edged Ayden Owens-Delerme of Arkansas, the Division 1 indoor heptathlon and outdoor decathlon winner, as well as fourth-place finisher in the decathlon representing Puerto Rico at the global outdoor meet at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Randolph Ross, Jr., of North Carolina A&T was originally selected as a finalist during the summer, but was removed from consideration prior to the event, resulting in the only two-athlete competition in the history of the award.

Florida State became the fifth school in the history of the Bowerman award to produce multiple winners, joining Oregon, LSU, Texas A&M and Florida.

Not only did Cunningham sweep the NCAA Division 1 indoor 60-meter hurdles and outdoor 110-meter hurdles titles, he also became the first Bowerman honoree to be selected based only on those two events.

Grant Holloway of Florida, the 2019 winner and event co-host Thursday, swept the indoor 60 hurdles and outdoor 110 titles championships, but also competed in the long jump and both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Cunningham, who ran 7.38 in the indoor 60 hurdles and 13.00 in the outdoor 110 hurdles, also produced more performances of 7.42 or faster indoors and 13.13 or faster outdoors in one year than any athlete in NCAA history.

Steiner set collegiate records in the indoor and outdoor 200 at 22.09 and 21.80, respectively, as well as producing the all-time NCAA mark in the indoor 300 at 35.80, along with contributing to the best outdoor 4x400 relay performance of 3:21.93, highlighted by her 48.92 split.

Steiner joined Mu last year, along with former Oregon standout Raevyn Rogers in 2017 as the only Bowerman female recipients to set both collegiate individual and relay records in the same year.

Steiner was also the only athlete to advance to the finals in four events at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor championships, and became just the third female competitor in history to capture gold medals in the 4x100 and 4x400 at the same World Championships.

Kentucky sprint coach Tim Hall celebrated his first female competitor capturing the Bowerman award after mentoring 2017 male recipient Christian Coleman during his tenure at Tennessee.