Abby Steiner Wins The Bowerman In 2022

AURORA, Colo. – A fitting end to a record-breaking year.

Abby Steiner won The Bowerman on Thursday night, as the 2022 USTFCCCA Convention wrapped up at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. Steiner became the first athlete from Kentucky to win collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor (Kendra Harrison and Sydney McLaughlin were finalists for the award in 2015 and 2018, respectively).

Steiner topped a talented group of finalists that also included Anna Hall and Camryn Rogers.

The speedster from Dublin, Ohio, had her hand in four collegiate records during the 2022 track & field seasons. Steiner started and ended the year in record fashion: first, taking down one of the oldest in the books when she clocked 35.80 over 300 meters to shatter the 40-year-old mark of 35.83 set by Merlene Ottey; lastly, toting the baton third on Kentucky’s record-setting 4×400 relay team at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a 48.92 split. Between those, Steiner unified the 200-meter collegiate records (the first to do so since Ottey), which included an American indoor record of 22.09 and a blistering 21.80 effort to win the outdoor version.

This is the fourth year in a row that a female athlete from the SEC has captured The Bowerman: former Georgia standout Keturah Orji jump-started the trend in 2018; former LSU star Sha’Carri Richardson sprinted her way to the award in 2019; and then former Texas A&M phenom Athing Mu left no doubt with her year to remember in 2021. Together, with Steiner included, this quartet set 11 collegiate records during their Bowerman-winning years.