Abby Steiner Remains on Bowerman Watchlist
LEXINGTON, Ky. — University of Kentucky track & field sprinter Abby Steiner is one of ten collegiate track & field athletes to be named to the mid-indoor edition of the The Bowerman Watchlist by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
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 sixth appearance on The Bowerman watch list after appearing on the preseason watch list released in January. Four of 2021’s watch lists also had Steiner among them.
Steiner has impressed since the last installment of The Bowerman Watchlist, running a current NCAA-leading time of 22.58 in the 200-Meter dash at the Jim Green Invitational. She is also currently the fourth fastest 60m runner in the NCAA after running 7.19 at Texas Tech on January 21.
Her 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 because of injury and was taken off the list in April 2021.
Steiner is the seventh UK female 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.
A senior from Dublin, Ohio, Steiner now has two collegiate records on her resume after she earned the 300m collegiate record of 35.80 seconds during Kentucky’s first meet of the season, the Cardinal Classic. She broke the 40-year-old record of 35.86 set by Nebraska’s Marlene Ottey. Steiner also owns the 200m co-collegiate record of 22.38 in March at NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Gabby Thomas of Harvard ran the 200m in the same time in 2018.
Her first accolade of the 2021-22 season came on December 14 when the USTFCCCA named Steiner the Women’s Athlete of the Week.
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