Abby Steiner Remains on Bowerman Watch List

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky track & field senior sprinter 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 100-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. 

This is Steiner’s ninth appearance on The Bowerman watch list after appearing on the preseason watch list in January and in four watch list updates since then. 

Since Steiner’s last watch list appearance on March 23, she ran the fifth fastest 100m in collegiate history at 10.82 seconds, which is a school record. It is also the current wind-legal collegiate lead for 2022 and second fastest in the world this season. 

She also ran the fastest 200m in collegiate history with a headwind over 1.7 m/s when she ran 22.38 into a 5.6 m/s headwind at LSU, currently ranked sixth in the world and second collegiately this season. 

To top off an excellent start to the outdoor season, Steiner ran the second leg in the current second-ranked 4x100m relay in the NCAA this season, helping the team to a time of 42.46. 

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. 

The Bowerman was first awarded in 2009 and official watch lists began in 2010. 

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 started her first outdoor season in three years with a bang, running 11.10 in the 100m at Florida Relays followed by 10.92 at LSU’s Joe May Invitational. She also ran the 200m at LSU, clocking an outdoor personal best of 22.38 (-5.6 m/s) that, if wind was accounted for, would convert to 21.67. 

Steiner closed her indoor season by defending 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 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 

• Five-time school record holder (60m, 100m, indoor 200m, 300m, 4x400m) 

• 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 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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