NEW ORLEANS – Texas A&M junior sprinter Kamaria Brown was selected among 10 athletes named to the women’s preseason watch list for The Bowerman Award on Thursday by the United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association.
Brown joins Aggies Wayne Davis II and Deon Lendore, who were both part of the men’s preseason watch list. The Bowerman Award is annually awarded in December during the USTFCCCA convention to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track and field athletes of the year.
The women’s preseason watch list includes Abbey D’Agostino of Dartmouth, Oregon’s tandem of Phyllis Francis and Laura Roesler, Anna Jelmini of Arizona State, Colorado’s Shalaya Kipp, Florida’s Cory McGee, Ashley Spencer of Texas, Shanieka Thomas of San Diego State and Kansas’ Lindsay Vollmer.
Brown becomes the sixth different Texas A&M female to appear on the watch list and hers is the 27th appearance by an Aggie since 2009. A&M’s Jessica Beard won The Bowerman Award in 2011 while Aggie Porscha Lucas was a Bowerman finalist in 2009, the inaugural year of the award.
An NCAA runner-up in the 200 meters with a wind-aided 22.21, Brown placed fourth in the event at the USATF Championships. Her time of 22.16w in the US nationals, which served as the selection meet for the World Championships, left her a 0.01 of a second behind third place Jeneba Tarmoh (22.15). The top three finishers qualified for Team USA.
Competing in the SEC Championships last spring, Brown set a pair of career best marks as she placed runner-up in a tough double of the 200 (22.58 PR) and 400 meters (52.10 PR), finishing second to a pair of defending champions in LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan (22.35) and Regina George of Arkansas (51.74). The Aggie women claimed the team title in their initial SEC Outdoor campaign.
In the 100 meters Brown set a personal best of 11.39 to win the USC Trojan Invitational last season. She opened the outdoor season in the 200 with a meet record of 22.85 at the Arizona State Baldy Castillo Invitational and then claimed victories in Oregon (23.27) and LSU (22.47w). Her opening 400 in the outdoor season last spring had Brown producing a then PR of 52.21 to defeat George on her home track at the Arkansas McDonnell Invitational.
Last year indoors Brown produced season best times of 7.41 in the 60, 22.73 in the 200 and 52.16 in the 400. Her time in the 200, set in the SEC Championships, bettered the Aggie school record of 22.83 run by Porscha Lucas in 2008. However it was surpassed three minutes later as teammate Ashton Purvis clocked 22.70 in the next section. Brown’s 52.16, which placed her second at the SEC Indoor, also ranks No. 2 on the Aggie all-time list behind the school mark of 50.79 set by Jessica Beard in 2011.
In relay action, Brown ran the third leg of the Aggie 4×100 relay that claimed the NCAA title after posting 12 wins on the season with eight victories in finals. Texas A&M completed a sweep of major relay titles in winning the Texas Relays (42.56), Penn Relays (44.33), SEC (43.43) and NCAA Championships (42.88).
Brown anchored the Aggie 4×200 that recorded a world leading time of 1:29.98 to win a Penn Relays title. In the 4×400 Brown anchored A&M to a runner-up finish at the NCAA meet when the Aggies posted a season best 3:27.59.
