After claiming top honors in the fan's online voting during August, Texas A&M senior Jessica Beard now awaits the final tabulation for the winner of The Bowerman Award in 2011 when it is announced on Wednesday, Dec. 14, from the JW Marriott Hill Country in San Antonio.
A live stream of the banquet is available through flotrack.com Wednesday evening, starting at 7 p.m. A red carpet preview show begins at 6 p.m.
Following is a link to the website - http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/240507-Bowerman-Awards-2011
During the fan vote Beard became the first athlete, male or female, in the three-year history of the The Bowerman to earn over 20,000 votes. In earning 49 percent of the votes, Beard's total reached 20,301 among the 41,266 votes cast.
Balloting by The Bowerman Advisory Board, past winners, selected media personnel, statisticians, and collegiate administrators will determine the final tabulation announced this week. Joining Beard as a finalist are LSU sprinter Kimberlyn Duncan and Arkansas pole vaulter Tina Sutej.
"I'm just excited to have my parents in town, plus being able to represent my team and Texas A&M as a finalist for The Bowerman Award," noted Beard. "The voters have done their part in voting and I can't wait until the winners are announced. I'm just grateful to be in the position I'm in, and I thank God for it all. Whoop!"
Beard, a 16-time All-American at Texas A&M, is the second Aggie finalist for the women's Bowerman Award since its inception in 2009. The other A&M finalist was Porscha Lucas in the inaugural year.
Enjoying a senior campaign with achievements that were remarkable and etched a lasting memory, Beard became just the third female, and the first since 1999, to win 400-meter titles at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships while also running on the winning 4 x 400 relays at both national meets in the same season.
In winning the NCAA Indoor 400 title, Beard set a world-leading indoor mark of 50.79, which ranks second all-time collegiately and third fastest on the all-time American list. Beard dominated the field for the NCAA Outdoor title as well, winning in a then collegiate leading 51.10.
Her relay split of 49.13 seconds to garner the outdoor 4 x 400 title in a school record 3:26.31 was the best-ever in NCAA history, topping the previous best of 49.6 seconds. Indoors, Beard split 51.09 to rally the Aggies from fourth place to first in front of a raucous home crowd and win the relay with a school record of 3:29.72.
Beard also became the first Texas A&M nominee, male or female, to be honored as the Big 12 Athlete of the Year. In the 400 meters Beard won seven of eight conference finals she contested over her career.
Amid her four years with the Aggies, Beard was an integral part of three team national championships (2009-2011) and seven Big 12 championship teams (four outdoor, three indoor). Beard contributed 37 ¾ points at NCAA Indoors and 38 ½ at NCAA Outdoors while amassing a total of 127 points in Big 12 conference meets (73 indoors, 54 outdoors).