Britton Wilson joins The Bowerman watch list

NEW ORLEANS – The latest version of The Bowerman watch list had a pair of new additions following the conference weekend and Arkansas sophomore Britton Wilson joined the elite collegiate list after her world-class performances during the SEC Championships.

Wilson becomes the 10^th woman in Arkansas program history to be named to the award’s watch list. Among women’s teams all-time, the Razorbacks join an exclusive group with only four other programs to have at least 10 athletes named to a watch list – Oregon (16), Texas A&M (14), Texas (10), LSU (10).

The other new addition to the 10-deep watch list is North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy, the first man or women from the Wolfpack program to be named to a Bowerman watch list.

The exploits by Wilson in claiming an unprecedented SEC double victory in the 400m and 400m hurdles an hour apart included a world-leading 53.75 in the 400m hurdles and a 50.05 in the 400m that currently ranks third in the world.

Both career best marks rank Wilson as the No. 6 performer on the all-time collegiate list and are Arkansas school records.

To cap off an amazing day of performances, Wilson split 48.60 as the anchor leg on the Razorback 4 x 400 relay, which finished third with a school record of 3:22.55. Wilson’s time is the fastest ever split by a collegian. The relay time ranks Arkansas as the No. 3 school with the No. 4 performance.

Any one of those three elite marks would be noteworthy on their own, but for someone to accomplish all three in a single day – over a two-and-a-half hour time frame – makes it a legendary feat.

Wilson has been part of nine Arkansas school records in 2022, three during the indoor season and six outdoors.

The indoor records include the distance medley relay, splitting 52.37 on a 10:51.63 effort that won the Razorback Invitational, a 50.88 in the 400m as the SEC Indoor silver medalist, and splitting 49.83 as the anchor leg on a collegiate record 4 x 400 of 3:24.09 at the SEC meet. The split by Wilson is the second-fastest ever in the world and by a collegian.

Outdoors, Wilson has improved the UA record in the 400m hurdles four times, starting with a 54.65 in the prelims of the Texas Relays, then bettering the Texas Relays meet record (54.60) with a world-leading 54.37 victory in the final. Wilson lowered the UA record to 54.23 in the SEC prelims, then produced a world-leading 53.75 to win the final.

In claiming the SEC 400m title, Wilson’s time of 50.05 broke the UA record of 50.25 set by Taylor Ellis-Watson in 2016. The 48.60 split bettered the previous collegiate best of 48.84 set by Texas A&M’s Athing Mu during the 2021 NCAA Championships.

Six SEC athletes are included among the 10 on this watch list for The Bowerman.

The Bowerman 2022

Women’s Watch List – Update #6, May 18, 2022

* watch list debut