Three Aggies named to men's Bowerman Award watch list

NEW ORLEANS – Three members of the Texas A&M track and field team have been named to the men's Bowerman Award watch list this month, marking just the second time since the award started in 2009 that one school has had three male athletes named among the 10 listed on a watch list.
 
Representing the Aggies on the Bowerman Award watch list this month are senior Fred Kerley, junior Ioannis Kyriazis (John Kyr-e-ah-zees) and senior Lindon Victor. All three have set world leading marks for the 2017 season and established Texas A&M school records.
 
Previously, Florida had three athletes on the men's watch list in 2011 with the trio of Will Claye, Jeff Demps and Christian Taylor, who advanced to the three-person finalist list that year.
 
Victor recently broke the collegiate record in the decathlon to win the Texas Relays title with a score of 8,472 points after establishing a collegiate best of 4,516 points on the first day of the multi-event. His score remains the world leader for 2017 and it improved the national record for Grenada he previously held.
 
Kerley posted an indoor world-leading time of 44.85 seconds in winning the NCAA Indoor 400m title and was part of the Texas A&M 4x400 relay that broke the collegiate record and set a NCAA meet record.
 
On the relay, Kerley also became the first sprinter to produce a sub-45 second split on the opening leg of an indoor 4x400 when ran 44.96 on the collegiate record effort of 3:02.52. During the outdoor season Kerley has split 43.5 as the second leg of the Aggie 4x400 that won the Texas Relays in 3:01.74.
 
Kyriazis produced the second longest javelin throw by a collegian when he won the Texas Relays title with an effort that measured 288 feet, 9 inches (88.01). Kyriazis only took one throw in the competition and came within three feet, seven inches of the collegiate record, a mark of 292-4 (89.10) set by Swedish thrower Patrik Boden of Texas in 1990.
 
In defending his Texas Relays javelin title, Kyriazis bettered the meet record of 274-2 (83.56) set by Boden in 1990 along with the facility record of 283-5 (86.38) set by Boris Henry of Germany in 2001.
 
Also named to the Bowerman men's watch list this month were KeAndre Bates, Florida; Edward Cheserek, Oregon; Christian Coleman, Tennessee; Mostafa Hassan, Colorado State; Josh Kerr, New Mexico; Grant Holloway, Florida; and Chris Nilsen, South Dakota.