Dudarev among elite, remains on The Bowerman watch list post-conference championships

NEW ORLEANS – For the second time this season, Kansas sophomore thrower Gleb Dudarev was among a list of the nation’s most elite NCAA Track & Field men’s athletes, being named to The Bowerman’s post-conference championship watch list, announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Thursday.
 
The Bowerman – known as collegiate track & field’s highest honor – is awarded each year by the USTFCCCA to the top male and female collegiate athletes in NCAA track & field.
 
Being named to the watch list doesn’t come easy, which makes the sophomore’s second appearance on the list that much greater. The Vitebsk, Belarus native is the top men’s athlete in the hammer throw to this point of the season, holding the nation’s best mark of 78.04 meters (256-0 ft.).
 
Dudarev’s nation-leading throw was set at the Kansas Relays on April 21, where the sophomore not only broke his own school record for the second time in the 2018 season, but he also broke a 35-year-old meet record previously held by Yuri Tamm of the USSR by nearly 12 feet, and the Rock Chalk Park Facility Record.
 
The throw by Dudarev at the Kansas Relays proved to be the best mark by a collegiate athlete in-season since Georgia’s Andras Haklits threw for 78.63 meters (257-11 ft.) in 2002, and ranks him No. 5 on the all-time collegiate performers list.
 
Prior to the Kansas Relays, Dudarev had only competed once this outdoor season, at the Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, Arizona. In his season opener, Dudarev broke his school record that he set as a freshman with a throw of 74.35 meters (243-11 ft.) to win the event.
 
Since Dudarev’s nation-leading performance, he competed at the Big 12 Championship in Waco, Texas, where he won his second-straight conference hammer throw title, while also breaking Baylor’s Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium facility record with a throw of 72.37 meters (237-5 ft.).
 
Dudarev will next compete at the NCAA West Preliminary Round at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California. The men’s hammer throw is scheduled for Noon PDT (2 p.m. CDT) on Thursday, May 24. The meet, which will run May 24-26, will feature a total of 41 Kansas entries.
  FOLLOW

@KUTrack

/KUTrackandField

@KUTrack

KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.