FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas jumper Jaydon Hibbert added more hardware to his award cabinet at the USTFCCCA convention in Denver on Thursday.
The freshman made history by becoming the youngest track and field athlete, male or female, to claim The Bowerman — an annual track and field award given to the year's best student-athlete in American collegiate track and field.
18-year-old Hibbert finished the season undefeated in the triple jump, sweeping both the SEC and NCAA titles. He also broke a handful of decade-old collegiate and world U20 records.
Among the six Arkansas finalists in the history of The Bowerman, which started in 2009, Hibbert joins Jarrion Lawson (2016) as Razorbacks who have won the honor. Arkansas is the fourth school to have a pair of men’s winners, joining Florida State, Florida and Oregon.
Hibbert is the first Jamaican to claim The Bowerman, with previous finalists including Janeek Brown (Arkansas, 2019) and Andrew Riley (Illinois, 2012).
He is the third freshman overall to win the prestigious honor, joining Sha'Carri Richardson (LSU, 2019), Athing Mu (Texas A&M, 2021) and Sydney McLaughlin (Kentucky, 2018).
The winner of the women’s Bowerman was Julien Alfred of Texas, which included Razorback Britton Wilson and Florida’s Jasmine Moore as finalists. Alfred, from St. Lucia, is the first women’s international winner.
In addition to The Bowerman, Hibbert was named SEC Freshman Field Athlete of the Year and the South Central Field Athlete of the Year for the 2023 indoor track and field season. For the outdoor season, Hibbert was honored as Co-National Field Athlete of the Year, SEC Field Athlete of the Year, SEC Freshman Athlete of the Year and South Central Field Athlete of the Year.