2023 Bowerman finalist: Britton Wilson

DENVER, Colorado – Arkansas has a pair of finalists in junior Britton Wilson and freshman Jaydon Hibbert for The Bowerman Presentation that will be held on the evening of Thursday, Dec. 14, during the USTFCCCA convention.

The 2023 male and female winners will be announced among three finalists for the annual award, which began in 2009.

Hibbert and Wilson are the third Bowerman finalist for their respective Arkansas programs. Hibbert follows Jarrion Lawson (2016) and Ayden Owens-Delerme (2022) while Wilson follows Tina Šutej (2011) and Janeek Brown (2019).

Lawson, who is the lone Razorback finalist to win The Bowerman, will be among 15 former Bowerman winners in attendance for this year’s ceremony. Live coverage of The Bowerman Presentation will be available at 8 p.m. (CT) through a free link on runnerspace.com.

“I’m excited to represent my school Arkansas, as well as Jamaica,” noted Hibbert. “I’m super excited about the ceremony, having fun, and being dressed up. The main aim is to represent my school and country.

“Britton and I are going to go there and have fun. Whatever the results, we’re going to enjoy the experience. It’s my dream that we both win.”

Wilson added: “It was a great season and really exciting for me to do so many things this past year. I have so many positive memories and experiences.

“I’m super excited, and even more excited I’m experiencing this with Jaydon. We have a really great relationship and have become super close. It’s really exciting to get to be there with someone who is one of my best friends. The fact that both the men’s and women’s coaching staffs will be there, so the environment is going to be really exciting.”

In addition to the Razorbacks having a pair of Bowerman finalists, Texas also has a tandem in Longhorns Leo Neugebauer and Julien Alfred. The other finalists include Georgia’s Kyle Garland and Florida’s Jasmine Moore.

While no one school has claimed both Bowerman honors in the same year, three programs – LSU, Oregon and Texas A&M – have claimed a men’s and women’s Bowerman award in separate seasons.

With Arkansas and Texas having a pair of finalists, this marks the sixth and seventh time for a school to have a finalist for each gender. Previously it was achieved by Arizona (2013), Oregon (2014, 2015), LSU (2019), and Florida (2019).

With a total of six finalists in the history of The Bowerman, the Razorbacks rank equal fourth overall. Oregon leads with 12 finalists (9 athletes), followed by Florida (8), Texas A&M (8), Texas (6), and LSU (5).

In a special season that featured numerous records for the Razorback pair, Hibbert and Wilson admired one another’s accolades during a collegiate season that spanned the months between January and June.

Hibbert was one of five Razorbacks on the Bowerman watchlist during the season as Carey McLeod joined him among the 10 semifinalist for the men’s award. Wilson also had company in teammate Ackera Nugent among the women’s semifinalist.

Both Hibbert and Wilson had to endure issues during the course of the season as they pushed their bodies to do extraordinary feats.

For Wilson, a moment of doubt during the indoor season came when she was sidelined for three weeks after opening the season with a collegiate record of 1:25.16 at 600m. However, trusting the process paid dividends when she delivered a spectacular performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

“Setting an American record in the 400m indoors was so special,” Britton exclaimed. “Prior to that race I was having issues with my shins and then I got COVID. After being out for a few weeks I was scared about how my season was going to go, because I wanted it to be better than last year.

“So going into nationals I just trusted myself and relaxed. Then I ran my first ever 49 and broke the American record. I feel like that was the turning point with how my confidence shifted in the outdoor season and also my excitement. I fell back in love with the sport, even when I was dealing with the issues with my shins.”

Following the American record of 49.48 seconds, which ranks No. 2 on the all-time world list, Wilson produced an anchor leg split of 49.14 to lead the Razorbacks to a team victory with a world best winning 3:21.75 performance in the 4 x 400m relay.

As Arkansas claimed the team title by four points over Texas (64-60), Wilson’s relay effort topped the previous world’s fastest indoor split of 49.54 set by Texas A&M’s Athing Mu in 2021 while the Razorbacks bettered the world record of 3:23.27 set by Russia in 2006.

In addition to breaking the indoor collegiate record of 3:24.09 set by Arkansas in 2022, the Razorbacks also ran faster than the outdoor collegiate record of 3:21.93 set in 2022 by Kentucky.

Record breaking by Wilson continued into the outdoor season as she improved the collegiate record in the 400m on three occasions, twice during the SEC Outdoor Championships, with times of 49.51, 49.40, and 49.13. The previous record of 49.57 had been set in 2021 by Mu.

Wilson even repeated her unique SEC double victory in the 400m and 400m hurdles, running the pair of finals an hour and half apart.

The 49.13 performance ranks Wilson the No. 5 performer with the No. 10 performance on the U.S. all-time list. On the all-time collegiate list, Wilson generated six of the top seven times and has seven of the top 10 from her seven sub-50 second races in 2023.

“It’s kind of hard for an 18-year-old body to succumb to all of the rigors of jumping while your body is still developing,” noted Hibbert, who went through a spell of growing pains during the start of the indoor season. “It’s a work in progress at the moment.

“I started this sport three years ago, so I’m still going through the rigors and triumphs of this sport. If you give me good training, I’m going to improve really quick.”

That became evident early into Hibbert’s initial season as a Razorback, with a Jamaican indoor record and collegiate record of 57-6.5 (17.54) on his first and only attempt to claim the NCAA Indoor title after a second round leap of 56-1.25 (17.10) captured the SEC Indoor victory two weeks prior.

The previous indoor collegiate record of 57-1 (17.40) was set in 1985 by Arkansas legend Mike Conley while Razorback alum Clive Pullen held the previous Jamaican indoor record with a 56-4.75 (17.19) mark from 2017.

An audible gasp from the crowd in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, signaled something big had just occurred on Hibbert’s second attempt at the SEC Outdoor Championships. When the display board produced the numbers of 58-7.5 (17.87) it signaled that yet another long-standing collegiate record had been broken by Hibbert.

The outstanding mark that would remain the world leader for the remainder of 2023 eclipsed the collegiate record of 57-7.75 (17.57) set by SMU’s Keith Connor in 1982 by nearly a full foot. A pair of Conley outdoor marks were also bettered, the UA school record of 57-6.5 (17.54) as well as the all-conditions best of 58-1.25w (17.71w) that were both established during his 1985 NCAA victory.

“I’m developing in this event, and this is the first time I’ve been a world leader,” stated Hibbert. “I have all this praise around me, it’s really good, and not too overwhelming. I feel I’m really blessed to lead the triple jump in 2023, especially coming into Arkansas only jumping a legal 17 meters once and then jumping over 17.50 at least eight times this season.

“It’s not soaked in my mind yet of what I’ve really done, because I’m so focused on what is to come. Still, I’m giving thanks for all these blessings.”

In winning the NCAA Outdoor title, jumping 57-7.5 (17.56), Hibbert became the first Arkansas freshman to accomplish the feat and just the fourth freshman to ever win. In completing a sweep of NCAA titles, Hibbert became the second freshman to achieve the rare accomplishment, following Oregon’s Emmanuel Ihemeje in 2021.

Now both Razorbacks can reflect on campaigns that generated a plethora of records as they produced extraordinary seasons in becoming finalists for The Bowerman. They will be celebrated during the ceremony as everyone anticipates the announcement of the next recipients of the prestigious award.

“Obviously, it would be amazing to win it together,” said Wilson. “We’re not going to be upset either way, because we’re both so happy and blessed to be there and to just have this experience. We’re going there with super high hopes and good attitudes.”