Romaine Beckford, Wayne Pinnock named Bowerman semifinalists
FAYETTEVILLE – For the second consecutive year Arkansas has a pair of Razorbacks named among the 10 semifinalists for the men’s 2024 Bowerman, as announced by USTFCCCA on Thursday.
High jumper Romaine Beckford and long jumper Wayne Pinnock, both from Jamaica, become the sixth and seventh Razorbacks to be a semifinalist for the Bowerman, which was first awarded in 2009.
Last season Arkansas was represented by a pair of Jamaicans in Jaydon Hibbert and Carey McLeod, with Hibbert claiming the Bowerman award. Previously, Omar McLeod (2015), Jarrion Lawson (2016) and Ayden Owens-Delerme (2022) were semifinalists with Lawson also winning the Bowerman.
For the second straight year, Arkansas is the lone school with a pair of Bowerman semifinalists. Joining Beckford and Pinnock among the semifinalists from the SEC are sprinter Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia and thrower Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan of Ole Miss.
Additional semifinalists include Caleb Dean (Sprints/Hurdles, Texas Tech), Leo Neugebauer (Combined events, Texas), Habtom Samuel (Distance, New Mexico), Parker Wolfe (Distance, North Carolina), and Nico Young (Distance, Northern Arizona).
Members of The Bowerman Advisory Board, who have produced watch lists throughout the season, devise these lists of semifinalists by providing a ranked-ordered list of 10 athletes who they believe had the most outstanding season. The list of semifinalists represents the group’s consensus.
The same Advisory Board will assemble to deliberate who will be named as finalists. Those selections will be made public on Tuesday, June 25.
An undefeated season by Beckford was highlighted with a pair of SEC titles and defending his NCAA Indoor & Outdoor championships from 2023 when he was competing for South Florida.
Beckford, who became the first Arkansas NCAA Outdoor high jump winner since Ray Doakes in 1995, joined rare company in delivering consecutive NCAA sweeps. He became just the third high jumper to produce four consecutive national championships. It was previously achieved by Jesse Williams of USC (2005-06) and Mark Boswell of Texas (1999-2000).
Beckford cleared heights of 7-4.5 (2.25) indoors and 7-3.25 (2.22) outdoor in sweeping the SEC titles. In NCAA competitions, Beckford scaled heights of 7-5.25 (2.27) indoors and 7-5 (2.26) outdoors to secure his victories.
Pinnock equaled the Jamaican national indoor record with his NCAA Indoor winning leap of 27-6.75 (8.40) which included an impressive series of 27-foot jumps with marks of 27-0 (8.23), 27-5.25 (8.36), 27-2.5 (8.29), 27-6.75 (8.40) in his series.
The 27-6.75 performance moves Pinnock to equal No. 5 on the all-time collegiate list with McLeod and is equal No. 2 on the UA all-time list, trailing only the school record of 27-8 (8.43) set by Erick Walder in 1994.
Pinnock claimed his second SEC Indoor long jump title with a victory that measured 27-2 (8.28). In claiming the SEC Outdoor long jump, his fifth overall title, Pinnock became just the fourth jumper in conference history to win three consecutive long jump titles.
Among those four to achieve the endeavor, Pinnock is the third Razorback to accomplish it after Erick Walder (1992-94) and Alain Bailey (2008-10).