By Jacob Most
March 6, 2014 –

LEXINGTON, Ky. –

The seventh-ranked Kentucky track and field team’s Dezerea Bryant and Kendra Harrison were both named to the Women’s Watch List for The Bowerman Award as the pre-NCAA Indoor Championships edition of the list was released Thursday.

Kentucky is tied with second-ranked Oregon for the team with the most entries (two – Laura Roesler and Jasmine Todd) on Thursday’s edition of the Bowerman Watch List.

Harrison, who was listed as receiving votes on the most recent watch list — which was released in February –, makes the list for the first time, while Bryant is included in the list for the second straight time.

Bryant enters next weekend’s NCAA Championships with the nation’s fastest 60-meter dash time this season, and ranked second nationally in the 200m.

Bryant will have an opportunity to make a major splash at the NCAA Championships, where she is likely to face off with Texas A&M’s Kamaria Brown as the two are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the world indoors at 200m this season.

Brown defeated Bryant, on her home track in College Station, Texas, at last weekend’s Southeastern Conference Championships, while Bryant won the SEC 60m Championship.

Bryant has run a school-record, collegiate-leading 7.16 seconds twice this season, .4 better than her nearest competitor. The time ranks her .01 outside the all-time top-10 collegiate performers list, and equal to the No. 11 spot on the 2014 world list.

She owns six of the eight fastest performances of the 2014 collegiate season, including a defeat of rival Watch List member Jasmine Todd and a tie with professional and 2012 4x400m Olympic Gold Medalist Tianna Bartoletta over 60m at the Rod McCravy Memorial.

Harrison set the meet record in a winning-performance in the SEC 60m hurdles final last weekend. Harrison is the collegiate leader in the 60-meter hurdles this season with a top performance 7.94 having come to win the SEC Championships title. The personal best time moved her into a four-way tie at No. 7 on the all-time collegiate performers list with, among others, 2010 The Bowerman winner Queen Harrison of Virginia Tech.

Harrison is the nation’s top qualifier in the NCAA Championship 60-meter hurdles, the 16th-ranked qualifier at 60 meters, and a member of the seventh-ranked 4×400 relay along with Bryant

Harrison has broken 8.00 five times, with only LSU’s Jasmin Stowers having accomplished the feat even once this season, and it was at altitude.  Harrison is ranked No. 16 among collegians at 60 meters with a top time 7.31 having come in the SEC Prelims, as she finished seventh in the final at the SEC Championships.

The Bowerman Trophy, which was first awarded in 2009, is presented annually by the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athletes in the nation.

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Some information for this article was provided by USTFCCCA.