Just four weeks after being named the winner of the 2023 Bowerman award, Arkansas sophomore Jaydon Hibbert now leads a trio of Razorback jumpers on this year’s Bowerman preseason watch list.
The Bowerman is the annual track and field trophy presented to the year’s best collegiate athlete. Similar to football’s Heisman Trophy, it is the sport’s highest achievement.
The list of 10 was released Wednesday and included Hibbert, along with a pair of teammates, senior Romaine Beckford and junior Wayne Pinnock. All three are natives of Jamaica.
Arkansas is the first men’s program to have three athletes on a preseason watch list.
Hibbert was the youngest winner in the award’s 15-year history and the second Razorback to win the award. As an 18-year-old freshman, he claimed a pair of NCAA titles in the triple jump, while producing last year’s world-leading mark with a 58-7.5 (17.87) performance. That mark broke the outdoor collegiate record from 1982, as well as the world U20 record from 1985.
At the indoor national championships, Hibbert needed just one jump of 57-6.5 (17.54) to capture the NCAA title, breaking the collegiate and Arkansas school-record, set by Mike Conley in 1985, as well as the world U20 record and Jamaican national record.
Pinnock, who swept the NCAA long jump titles as a freshman at Tennessee in 2022, won the SEC outdoor title as a Razorback last season, then was runner-up to teammate Carey McLeod at NCAA championships. He also finished second at SEC indoor meet and fourth in the NCAA meet.
Beckford has yet to compete for Arkansas after transferring from South Florida, where he was a double NCAA high jump champion. He set career bests during the 2023 season with a clearance of 7-5.25 (2.27) to win the NCAA Outdoor title and 7-5 (2.26) indoors in winning a conference title.
While at South Florida, Beckford claimed four American Athletic Conference league titles – two indoor and two outdoor – while earning the 2023 AAC Indoor Field Most Outstanding Performance.
The Razorback trio have combined for six titles and 73 points in NCAA Championships the past two years, and each claimed a title at the 2023 Jamaica Championships in their respective events.
Arkansas has now had 12 men named to the watch list all-time, second only to Florida’s 15.
The women’s preseason Bowerman watch list was announced on Tuesday, but did not include any Razorbacks.