The Bowerman: A Closer Look At The 2019 Fan Vote
The Bowerman Fan Vote might have wrapped up last Thursday with Divine Oduduru of Texas Tech and Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU winning their respective gender’s titles, but we still have A LOT to digest.
READ MORE: Oduduru, Richardson Captute 2019 Fan Vote Crowns
For those who don’t know, fans have had a say in which finalists win The Bowerman each year since the award’s inception in 2009. Winners of The Bowerman Fan Vote both receive one first-place vote for The Bowerman, which is handed out every December at the annual USTFCCCA Convention. And while The Bowerman Fan Vote is a small drop in the bucket, it’s important because it can give a potential winner a leg up.
So how did those world-class sprinters get a head start on the competition in the race for collegiate track & field’s highest honor? Well, it’s easy to see when you look at the numbers.
The Bowerman Fan Vote – Most Votes Per Day |
||
| Date |
Athlete Name
|
Votes
|
| Thursday, June 20 |
Grant Holloway, Florida
|
2082
|
| Friday, June 21 |
Sha’Carri Richardson, LSU
|
9447
|
| Saturday, June 22 |
Sha’Carri Richardson, LSU
|
4812
|
| Sunday, June 23 |
Divine Oduduru, Texas Tech
|
2998
|
| Monday, June 24 |
Divine Oduduru, Texas Tech
|
3103
|
| Tuesday, June 25 |
Divine Oduduru, Texas Tech
|
3535
|
| Wednesday, June 26 |
Divine Oduduru, Texas Tech
|
1834
|
| Thursday, June 27 |
Divine Oduduru, Texas Tech
|
2564
|
Oduduru and Richardson hauled in the most votes on seven of the eight days. The former Red Raider was the biggest beneficiary of that as he snagged the most votes from Sunday, June 23, to the end of the election on Thursday. The former Tiger had the most votes on Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22, including an otherwordly total of 9,447 on Friday, which dwarfed the second best day by the other five finalists by nearly 3,000 votes.
And you can see that Holloway earned the most votes out of any finalist on Thursday, June 20. What you don’t see is that Yanis David, his Florida counterpart, finished just one vote shy of the women’s lead that day (Richardson had 1507, compared to David’s 1506).
Let’s now take a look at how many votes per cast per day.
The Bowerman Fan Vote – Totals Per Day |
|||
| Date |
Men’s Total
|
Women’s Total
|
Total Votes
|
| Thursday, June 20 |
4149
|
3376
|
7525
|
| Friday, June 21 |
14,814
|
13,003
|
27,817
|
| Saturday, June 22 |
8445
|
7036
|
15,481
|
| Sunday, June 23 |
5156
|
3647
|
8803
|
| Monday, June 24 |
6026
|
4680
|
10,706
|
| Tuesday, June 25 |
6057
|
3983
|
10,040
|
| Wednesday, June 26 |
4241
|
3014
|
7255
|
| Thursday, June 27 |
4483
|
2762
|
7245
|
| Final Totals |
53,371
|
41,501
|
94,872
|
The first full day of voting was the largest as 27,817 votes poured in on Friday, June 21. That was 29.3 percent of the overall total.
If you want a better understanding of just how massive that day was, there were 25,988 total votes on the first three days of The Bowerman Fan Vote in 2018 combined.
And as we mentioned before, the 53,371 votes on the men’s finalists in 2019 was an all-time high, smashing the previous mark of 45,586. That’s 7,785 more than 2018 – or a full-day total in 2019 from Thursday, June 20, Wednesday, June 26 and Thursday, June 27.
