Texas' Courtney Okolo grabbed four NCAA titles and broke an NCAA record en route to the Bowerman Award.
ORLANDO — The Queen of the Quarter Mile reigns supreme.
After an undefeated season that resulted in four NCAA titles and a collegiate record, former Texas 400-meter standout Courtney Okolo was named the women’s winner of The Bowerman award, collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor.
Okolo is the 8th women’s winner of The Bowerman Award and joins an elite sorority that includes the like of 2016 Olympic gold medalist Brianna Rollins (2013) and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Jenny Simpson (2009) thanks to a spectacular senior year.
Ladies and gentlemen, your 2016 The Bowerman Award winner for the women is @UTexasTrack's Courtney Okolo. #TheBowerman16 pic.twitter.com/oe2G3xtCqh
— The Bowerman (@thebowerman) December 17, 2016
The Carrollton, Texas, native made history at the LSU Alumni Gold Invitational in late April when she became the first female collegian to ever go sub-50 seconds in the 400, in turn lowering her own collegiate record. Her final year in burnt orange also included an undefeated record against collegians and four NCAA titles (two individual, two relay).
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Okolo is the first non-consecutive finalist to win The Bowerman Award. She was also in the final three in 2014, but it was Oregon’s Laura Roesler who nabbed the hardware.
Other women’s finalists for The Bowerman Award were Georgia’s Keturah Orji — a two-time NCAA champion in 2016 who set the American record in the triple jump — and Mississippi’s Raven Saunders — the NCAA outdoor champion in the shot put who broke the indoor and outdoor collegiate records in that event.
