The University of Mississippi Athletics
Saunders Named to Bowerman Preseason Watch List
1/4/2017 | Track and Field
OXFORD, Miss. â€" Ole Miss thrower Raven Saunders is one of 10 women on the 2017 preseason watch list for The Bowerman Award, collegiate track & field's highest individual honor.
It was just weeks ago that Saunders was in Orlando as one of three finalists for the 2016 edition of the award, which went to Texas sprinter Courtney Okolo. The iconic 35-pound trophy named after legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman has been presented by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) to the top man and woman in college track & field each year since 2009.
Entering her junior year, Saunders will look to pick off where she left off last summer, when she rode an incredible sophomore campaign all the way to a fifth-place finish in the shot put at the Rio Olympics, three months after her 20th birthday.
Some of the most notable accomplishments of Saunders' sophomore season, her first in an Ole Miss uniform, were NCAA outdoor shot put champion, indoor and outdoor SEC shot put champion, indoor collegiate shot put record (19.23m/63-1.25), outdoor collegiate shot put record (19.33m/63-5), NCAA outdoor shot put meet record (19.33m/63-5), SEC outdoor shot put meet record (18.58m/60-11.5), SEC Commissioner's Trophy for most points scored at the league's outdoor meet, two-time National Athlete of the Week, five-time SEC Athlete of the Week.
Saunders became the first female thrower to be named a Bowerman finalist last year.
She is joined on the preseason watch list by fellow 2016 finalist Keturah Orji of Georgia, as well as Alabama's Quanesha Burks, Kentucky's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Oregon's Raevyn Rogers, Notre Dame's Molly Seidel, Oregon's Deajah Stevens, Oregon's Ariana Washington, Georgia's Kendell Williams and Arkansas' Lexi Weeks. Saunders is the only thrower in the field of 10.
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