FAYETTEVILLE – Jordan Anthony is one of three male finalists from the 2025 season for The Bowerman as each awaits the announcement of this year’s trophy recipient during the presentation that will be held Thursday evening at the Gaylor Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas.

Started in 2009, The Bowerman is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the top male collegiate athlete and to the top female collegiate athlete in the sport of NCAA track & field. Coverage of The Bowerman Presentation will be available for free on runnerspace.com starting at 6:20 p.m. (CT).

The Bowerman men’s finalist includes Auburn’s Ja’Kobe Tharp and Baylor’s Nathaniel Ezekiel. While Anthony swept NCAA Indoor 60m and NCAA Outdoor 100m titles, Tharp claimed a pair of NCAA titles in the 60m hurdles and 110m hurdles. Ezekiel won the 400m hurdles at NCAA Outdoor and finished second in the 400m at NCAA Indoor.

Anthony is the fourth Razorback to be a finalist for the men’s Bowerman. Two Razorbacks have claimed the honor with Jarrion Lawson (2016) and Jaydon Hibbert (2023) while Ayden Owens-Delerme was a finalist in 2022.

“It’s the Heisman of track and field,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Doug Case. “I think Jordan has had the best combined season with indoor and outdoor. The points he scored at conference and national championships were part of a tremendous season. I feel he should be the No. 1 candidate to win the award.

“We have tradition here at Arkansas with the Bowerman. We’ve had two winners who were superstars as well. Jordan is right in that category with those guys.”

Jordan Anthony | 2025 Postseason Meets

In completing his first full season of collegiate track and field instead of sharing time with the football program, Anthony delivered a pair of national sprint titles and three SEC titles while claiming high point honors at both SEC Outdoor and NCAA Outdoor Championship meets.

Aided by the scoring efforts from Anthony, Arkansas placed fourth in team scoring at the NCAA Indoor and were third at NCAA Outdoor. The Razorbacks were named John McDonnell Men’s Program of the Year as they produced three podium finishes in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field for the 2024-25 season.

It marked the first three NCAA trophy season by a Division I men’s program in nine years and the first by the Razorbacks since 1999-2000.

Anthony earned the Commissioner’s trophy at the SEC Outdoor Championships as the high-point scorer with 21.5 points as the Razorbacks claimed the team title.

Twenty of those conference points came in sweeping the 100m and 200m with stellar performances of 9.95 and 19.93 as Anthony became just the third sprinter in SEC history to achieve the sweep with sub-10 and sub-20 second times.

Named the SEC Outdoor Runner of the Year, Anthony became the first Razorback to attain the honor since Caleb Cross in 2012.

Anthony was also the high-point scorer at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with 16.5 points. Combining the NCAA Indoor (10 points) with his NCAA Outdoor tally, Anthony produced the most points between both championships in 2025 with 26.5 points.

“It was a great season and being healthy is a very important part of it,” said Case. “I think we did a great job in the weight room. Our training room did a great job of keeping him healthy. In coaching him, I brought him along really slowly. I didn’t try to push the speed on him too soon. I tried to prolong his season all the way into NCAAs. It ended up working out pretty good.

“For Jordan to be dedicated to that in the short period of time we had to work to get him to that level, I think he did a tremendous job of being focused on his season and the goals he wanted to achieve. It kind of proves if you really put your nose to the grindstone in a short period of time you can get a lot of stuff done.”

Anthony established UA school records in the 60m and 100m with times of 6.47 and 9.95. In sweeping the NCAA titles, Anthony became the first sprinter since Christian Coleman of Tennessee in 2017 to claim the NCAA 60m and 100m titles. Anthony was also the lone sprinter to reach the NCAA Indoor 60m, NCAA Outdoor 100m and 200m finals this season.

In addition to setting school records in the 60m and 100m, the 19.93 performance in the 200m ranks second on the Arkansas all-time list behind a 19.89 registered by Wallace Spearmon, Jr. in 2005.

Having a reunion tour in 2025, Jordan visited his previous collegiate stops on his journey to Arkansas. First was College Station, Texas, as the SEC Indoor was hosted by Texas A&M. Kentucky hosted the SEC Outdoor and then there was a return visit to College Station for the NCAA West First Rounds where Anthony sprinted to a blistering time of 9.75w seconds with a 2.1 aiding wind.

“It was great, honestly, because due to the fact people believed I was fast but I couldn’t really show that I was fast because of my previous injuries,” said Anthony. “I knew my time would come and I knew what I would be capable of doing. When I got out there it just turned to magic.”

Another reunion occurred at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California, near where Anthony was born in the Los Angeles area. There he won the 100m in a then career best of 9.98 to initially break the Arkansas school record.

In winning the NCAA Indoor 60m, Anthony feels that was his best executed race during the season while his most significant race was winning the SEC Outdoor 200m.

“I hit exactly every angle I needed to hit,” stated Anthony of the 60m race. “Then 40 to 45m out I was already celebrating because I knew I had the race won.

“My most important victory was probably the 200m at SEC Outdoor. Just shutting everybody up and quieting the stands since nobody even thought that I would be in the picture of winning the 200m. That was a really big moment for me. It put a dagger in everybody’s heart.”