NEW ORLEANS – The Road to The Bowerman starts here!

Nearly four weeks ago to the day, Jaydon Hibbert became the youngest winner in the history of The Bowerman. Hibbert hoisted the iconic award at the conclusion of the 2023 USTFCCCA Convention at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center outside of Denver.

The Jamaican’s path toward becoming the first repeat winner of collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor from either gender began Wednesday with the unveiling of the Men’s Preseason Watch List following a careful deliberation by The Bowerman Watch List Committee.

Hibbert, who swept the NCAA triple jump crowns and shattered both the indoor and outdoor collegiate records as a freshman at Arkansas, was joined on the ten-man Watch List by another 2023 finalist, Leo Neugebauer of Texas, 2023 semifinalists Mykolas Alekna of California and Ky Robinson, as well as Arkansas teammates Romaine Beckford and Wayne Pinnock, Harvard teammates Graham Blanks and Kenneth Ikeji, Shaun Maswanganyi of Houston and Godson Oghenebrume of LSU.

The Bowerman will be awarded in December at the annual USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Five of the athletes on the Watch List combined to win eight NCAA individual titles in 2023: Beckford swept the high jump; Hibbert dominated the triple jump; Ikeji won Harvard’s first national title since 1962, which also happened to be in the hammer; Robinson completed the outdoor distance double; and Neugebauer stood tall after a thrilling decathlon competition.

Alekna, Hibbert and Neugebauer all set collegiate records last year. The former obliterated his own CR in the discus with a monstrous heave of 71.00m (232-11) and owns 11 of the top-12 marks in collegiate history. Hibbert unified CRs in the triple jump with majestic marks: 17.54m (57-6½) indoors and 17.87m (58-7¾) outdoors. Neugebauer amassed 8836 points over ten events in his winning effort at the NCAA DI Outdoor Championships and is now ranked eighth in world history.

Now it’s 2024.

Blanks was the first to notch a CR this season, doing so in the 5000 meters at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in December. The Harvard star traversed 25 laps in 13:03.78 to take nearly five seconds off the previous all-time best of 13:08.28 set by Lawi Lalang in 2012. Just a few seconds behind Blanks was Robinson, who is now No. 2 on the chart at 13:06.42.

Fans will likely see nine of the ten athletes in action during the indoor season. Alekna is the outlier, having not thrown under a roof in his collegiate career and only focusing on the disc.

Nine is a common thread, as nine other athletes received votes from The Bowerman Watch List Committee, but not enough to land on the prestigious chart: Issam Asinga of Texas A&M, Caleb Dean of Texas Tech, Robert Gregory of Florida, Fouad Messaoudi of Oklahoma State, Tarsis Orogot of Alabama, Tzuriel Pedigo of LSU, Kyle Rademmeyer of South Alabama, Chris Robinson of Alabama and Joe Waskom of Washington.

The next Watch List will be released on Thursday, February 8.