College football has RG3.
Collegiate track and field has Jessica Beard and Ngoni Makusha.
Within a week of Baylor’s Robert Griffin III winning the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player, Beard and Makusha have won The Bowerman — college track and field’s equivalent to the Heisman.
Beard, from Texas A&M, took women’s honors.
Makusha, from Florida State, won the men’s award.
Jessica Beard
Beard, who will graduate Saturday, won NCAA titles indoors and outdoors at 400 meters and the 4-by-400 relay. From Euclid, Ohio, she became the third women in NCAA history and first since 1999 to win both 400 and both 4-by-400 titles in the same year.
Beard clocked the world’s fastest time of the year indoors (50.79). Outdoors, she won the NCAA in 51.10 and had a 49.13 split as anchor of the Aggies’ relay. After the collegiate season, Beard placed fourth in the USATF Championships 400, running a season-best 51.06.
Ngoni Makusha
Makusha, from Seke, Zimbabwe, joins a list of 100 meters and long jump champions in the same NCAA Outdoor meet that includes Houston’s Carl Lewis, Ohio State’s Jesse Owens and Michigan’s DeHart Hubbard. The junior, who is passing on his senior season in order to turn pro, also won the NCAA Indoor long-jump title and is the first male to sweep the indoor and outdoor jump titles since Nebraska’s Arturs Abolins in 2006. Makusha won a third title outdoors, running the second leg on the Seminoles 4-by-100 relay. His winning time of 9.89 in the 100 broke the collegiate and meet record of 9.92 set by UCLA’s Ato Bolden, and also is the Zimbabwean national record. He also set a national record of 27-6 3/4 in the long jump.
The Bowerman award, named for legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, was introduced in 2009. It is presented annually by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The Bowerman winners
WOMEN MEN
Jenny Barringer, Colo. 2009 Galen Rupp, Oregon
Queen Harrison, Va. Tech 2010 Ashton Eaton, Oregon
Jessica Beard, Texas A&M 2011 Ngoni Makusha, Fla. St.
