Abby Steiner Remains on Bowerman Watch List

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky track & field senior sprinter, and Indoor National Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, Abby Steiner has been named to The Bowerman Award Watch List by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for her top times in the 200- and 60-meter races on the world stage. 

The USTFCCCA announced a 10-person watch list for The Bowerman, which takes into consideration both the indoor and outdoor seasons. This year’s finalists will be announced in June. 

The Bowerman was first awarded in 2009 and official watch lists began in 2010. 
 
This is Steiner’s eighth appearance on The Bowerman watch list after appearing on the preseason watch list in January and in three watch list updates since then, including this week’s post NCAA-indoor watch list.  

Steiner’s Bowerman watch list debut was on March 3, 2021, five days after breaking the then-Southeastern Conference record in the women’s indoor 200 meters with a blazing 22.41 preliminary run. 

Steiner remained on the watch list through her NCAA Indoor Championship title and collegiate record-performance in the 200m (22.38) in March 2021. However, she saw limited competition during the outdoor season and was taken off the list in April 2021. 

The All-American from Ohio is the seventh UK women’s athlete to make the watch list since the award began in 2009 and the first since semifinalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and finalist Sydney McLaughlin were on the watch list together in 2018. 

Steiner’s Senior Season 

Steiner earned a spot on this year’s watch list through consistent collegiate and school record-breaking performances in the 2021-22 season. 

Most recently, Steiner defended her NCAA title in the 200-meter dash with a 22.16-second run Birmingham, Alabama. It was her second fastest 200m run of her career and second fastest in American history behind her own American-record mark. 

It was also the fastest women’s 200m in NCAA Championships meet history and broke the Birmingham CrossPlex facility record. 

Steiner earned silver in the 60m with a school-record time of 7.10 at NCAA Indoor Championships, which was the highest Steiner has ever placed in the event on the NCAA stage, in addition to leading the 4x400m to a bronze medal. 

Steiner cemented her name in American track & field history on February 26 when she ran the fastest American indoor 200m ever and second fastest in world history at 22.09 seconds to earn the SEC gold. This was her third year in a row winning the 200m SEC gold medal and third time breaking the collegiate record. 

She also broke the SEC Championships record, school record, meet record and Gilliam Indoor Stadium record at Texas A&M. 

The previous fastest indoor 200m in American history was Gwen Torrence’s 22.33 at the USA Championship in 1996. 

The national champion is now .22 away from Jamaican Merlene Ottey’s 21.87 indoor world record. 

In the 2021-22 indoor track & field season, Steiner has earned the following accomplishments: 

• 200m American & collegiate record holder (22.09) 

• Two-time 200m collegiate record breaker 

• NCAA and SEC 200m title 

• NCAA silver and SEC bronze in the 60m 

• NCAA 4x400m relay bronze 

• SEC Women’s Runner of the Year 

• SEC Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year 

• Two-time SEC Women’s Runner of the Week 

• USTFCCCA Southeast Region Women’s Runner of the Year 

• Three-time USTFCCCA Athlete of the Week 

• Ran in three 4x400m school record relays 

• Three Bowerman Watchlist appearances 

In addition to her 200m gold at SECs, Steiner also won bronze in the 60m with a time of 7.19 and was a member of the bronze medal-winning 4x400m relay (3:25.89) that ran under the previous collegiate record. 

At Clemson in February, Steiner broke the 200m collegiate record for the second time in her career and first time this season when she ran 22.37 for an event win, gaining sole possession of the record she used to share with Olympian Gabby Thomas. 

Steiner tied the then-60m school record Dezerea Bryant set in 2014 at Clemson, with the top time of the 60m semifinals (7.12). It was also the fastest women’s 60m time of the day, including prelims, semifinals and finals. 

Steiner broke the collegiate record in the 200m for the first time at NCAA Championships in 2021 when she tied Thomas’s then-collegiate record of 22.38 for her first national title. 

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