Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
NEW ORLEANS – LSU’s Michaela Rose was one of ten female track and field athletes selected as a semifinalist for The Bowerman, the highest individual honor in collegiate track and field.
Rose is fresh off of being crowned the NCAA women’s 800-meter outdoor national champion earlier this month. She clocked her third sub-two-minute time of the outdoor season with 1:59.83 to take gold. This mark made her the only woman in NCAA history to clock three sub-two minute times in a collegiate-outdoor career, doing so in only one season.
The Suffolk, Va., led the Tigers in points with 10 total out of the team’s 26 at the National Championship. The team’s 26 points gave them a seventh-place finish.
Earlier in the week she ran the fastest 800 qualifier in collegiate history with 2:00.1 in the semifinals. Her time was so fast she paced six other runners in her heat to place second through seventh right behind her.
Rose also clocked the second fastest time in collegiate history earlier in the season at the Bryan Clay Invitational with 1:59.08, only behind the 2021 Bowerman winner Athing Mu (1:57.03).
She is the 14th Bowerman semi-finalist in school history and the sixth female to receive the distinction. It is the third consecutive year that the women’s team has produced a semifinalist (Favour Ofili, 2022; Tonea Marshall, 2021), and the fifth straight year the track and field program has fielded a semifinalist. LSU has played host to The Bowerman three times with JuVaughn Harrison (2021), Sha’Carri Richardson (2019), and Kimberlyn Duncan (2012) all being named winners of the prestigious award.
The finalists for The Bowerman will be announced on June 26.
Women’s Semifinalists — June 20
Rhasidat Adeleke, Texas (Sprints)
Julien Alfred, Texas (Sprints)
Jasmine Moore, Florida (Jumps)
Ackera Nugent, Arkansas (Sprints/Hurdles)
Michaela Rose, LSU (Mid-Distance)
Masai Russell, Kentucky (Sprints/Hurdles)
Ackelia Smith, Texas (Jumps)
Katelyn Tuohy, NC State (Mid-Distance/Distance)
Jorinde van Klinken, Oregon (Throws)
Britton Wilson, Arkansas (Sprints/Hurdles)