University of Tennessee Athletics
Coleman named to Bowerman Watch List
January 05, 2017 | Track & Field
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Tennessee junior Christian Coleman was among the members of the Bowerman Award Preseason Watch List announced by the USTFCCCA on Thursday afternoon. The coaches association named 10 male student-athletes to the watch list for collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor.
Coleman is coming off an excellent 2016 season which saw him earn a spot on the USA Olympic team. He raced in the prelims for the United States’ 4x100m relay team at the Rio Olympics. The foursome recorded the fastest prelims time and was in line to win a bronze medal, but they were disqualified for an exchange out of the zone. Coleman qualified for the Olympic team, by running a career-best time of 9.95 second in the 100m prelims at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Collegiately, Coleman is coming off a season in which he won the indoor 200m national championship. He recorded a time of 20.55 in the NCAA final, after notching the fourth fastest 200m time in the Tennessee record book with a mark of 20.54 in the finals of the SEC Championship. The Atlanta, Ga. native also won a bronze medal in the 60m dash with a time of 6.52 which is the second fastest 60m time in school history.
Those results came after a spectacular performance at the SEC Indoor Championship where Coleman was the co-winner of the Cliff Harper Award for best performance as he won a gold medal in the 60m dash, took second in both the 200m dash as well as the 4x400m Relay team, where he ran the second leg. Ari Cogdell started the race followed by Coleman, Antonio Carter and Nathan Strother. That foursome now holds the second fastest time in school history with a 3:06.29 which they set at the NCAA Championship.
During the 2016 outdoor season, Coleman finished as the runner-up in the 100m and 200m races at the NCAA Championship. He posted a time of 10.03, a Tennessee record, in the prelims and followed that with a 10.23 mark which was the second best 100m mark. Coleman also was the runner-up at the SEC Championship in the 100m and finished fifth in the 200m.
Coleman currently holds the fastest 100m time, fourth-fastest 200m outdoor time, second-fastest 60m dash time, fourth-fastest 200m indoor and 300m indoor times.
Coleman is primed for a strong 2017 season as he began the campaign by breaking a facility record at Indiana's Gladstein Fiedhouse. He recorded a time of 33.26 in the 300m which was the fourth fastest 300m time in Tennessee history.
The Bowerman Award is named after former Oregon track & field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman. It is awarded every December in conjunction with the USTFCCCA annual coaches convention. The award was first handed out in 2009.
