On Friday, December 17th, Trenton’s Athing Mu became the proud recipient of the prestigious Bowerman Award at the 2021 USTFCCCA Convention in Orlando, Fl.
Trenton’s Own Athing Mu Makes History with Gold Medal in Tokyo
Tyler Mayforth from USTFCCCA, wrote the following in a recent article describing Mu’s success:
The one-and-done freshman from Texas A&M topped a talented group of finalists that also included teammate Tyra Gittens and Tara Davis of Texas.
Indoors, Mu obliterated collegiate records in both the 600 (1:25.80) and 800 (1:58.40) with additional all-time top-10 efforts in each event. Between those, Mu went 50.52 over 400 meters for the fifth-fastest performance in collegiate indoor history. Mu would later finish runner-up in that event at the NCAA Indoor Championships and anchored the Aggies to 4×400 victory with a 49.54 split, the fastest ever recorded in world history.
It didn’t take long for Mu to leave her mark outdoors, unifying the 800-meter collegiate records with a scintillating 1:57.73 effort in mid-April at the Michael Johnson Invitational. That would be Mu’s last 800 as a collegian as she eschewed the event to focus on the 400 in the postseason. Mu targeted 2016 The Bowerman winner Courtney Okolo’s collegiate record in the event of 49.71 and got progressively quicker each time out: 50.04 in the prelims at the SEC Outdoor Championships; 49.84 in the final at the SEC Outdoor Championships; 49.68, to break the collegiate record, at the NCAA DI West Preliminary Round in College Station, Texas; 49.57, to win her only NCAA individual title and lower the CR, at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Mu is the second female athlete from Texas A&M to win collegiate track & field’s highest individual honor, joining Jessica Beard from 2011. This is also the third consecutive Presentation that a female athlete from the SEC captured The Bowerman: Mu followed Keturah Orji (2018) and Sha’Carri Richardson (2019).