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Arkansas Athletics
Photo: Arkansas Athletics
DENVER – Among a season of superlative performances, Razorback freshman Jaydon Hibbert received the highest collegiate accolade upon being named The Bowerman winner for 2023 on Thursday evening to conclude the USTFCCCA convention.
Producing an undefeated collegiate season in the triple jump, which included a sweep of SEC and NCAA titles as well as breaking decades old collegiate and world U20 records while finishing the year as world leader, created an elaborate résumé befitting the prestigious award.
Among the six Arkansas finalists in the history of The Bowerman, which started in 2009, Hibbert joins Jarrion Lawson (2016) as Razorback winners of the honor. Arkansas is the fourth school to have a pair of men’s winners, joining Florida State, Florida, and Oregon.
The 18-year-old Hibbert is the first freshman to win the men’s honor and becomes the youngest winner overall, male or female. He is also the first Jamaican to claim The Bowerman with previous finalists from the island including Janeek Brown (2019) of Arkansas along with Andrew Riley of Illinois (2012).
Previous freshmen finalist for the men’s award included German Fernandez (Oklahoma State, 2009), Edward Cheserek (Oregon, 2014), Donavan Brazier (Texas A&M, 2016), and Mondo Duplantis (LSU, 2019).
Hibbert is the third freshman overall to win The Bowerman as Sha’Carri Richardson (LSU, 2019) and Athing Mu (Texas A&M, 2021) were previous female winners from a total of three freshmen finalist for the women’s award, which included Sydney McLaughlin (Kentucky, 2018).
As an international athlete, Hibbert joins four other Bowerman victors, and is the first to win since 2014 with Texas A&M’s Deon Lendore (Trinidad & Tobago). Additional international athletes to claim The Bowerman include Derek Drouin of Indiana (Canada) in 2013, Cam Levins of Southern Utah (Canada) in 2012, and Ngoni Makusha of Florida State (Zimbabwe) in 2011.
Hibbert is the third Bowerman finalist for the Razorback men’s program under Arkansas head coach Chris Bucknam and associate head coach Travis Geopfert. In addition to Bowerman winners in 2016 with Lawson and 2023 with Hibbert, in 2022 they had a finalist in Ayden Owens-Delerme.
