FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA COMMUNICATIONS
Florida Track and Field
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Contact: Mac Fisher
McCoy Becomes Latest Member of Gator Lineage on The Bowerman Watch List
The emerging star leapt into contention with a historic performance in the Long Jump last weekend.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gators Track and Field star sprinter Wanya McCoy has been named to the 2025 The Bowerman watchlist in the first midseason update, the USTFCCCA announced Thursday. McCoy, who took the collegiate lead in the indoor 200m this past weekend at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas, has emerged as one of the nation’s most tantalizing and versatile sprinting talents.
McCoy’s addition to the list marks the first male Gator athlete to crack the watch list since Ryan Willie was added to a late-season edition on May 18, 2023. McCoy is the 16th male Gator athlete to be named to The Bowerman watch list in the history of the award. The Gators are the all-time leaders in that category.
Wanya McCoy
McCoy entered the 2025 season as one of the Gators’ most notable returning athletes. In 2024, his first season with the program, the Bahamian native was crowned the SEC indoor 200m champion, and scored in the 100m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as a part of the Gators third-straight team championship win. Following his efforts in the collegiate season, he represented the Bahamas at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, advancing to the 200m Olympic Semifinal.
In 2025, McCoy emerged as one of the nation’s top speedster’s, holding the collegiate lead in the 200m (second in the world), and the fourth-fastest 60m mark (ninth in the world), and running the second leg in Florida’s collegiate-leading 4x400m relay squad.
McCoy’s 60m time of 6.53 (6.55@) was a new personal record and UF program No. 3, placing him only behind NCAA 60m Champions Jeff Demps (6.52) and Grant Holloway (6.50) on the program all-time leaderboard.
Looking ahead, McCoy has the chance to become one of the most versatile sprinters at the collegiate level, as he appears poised to be a top contender in as many as seven NCAA title events – figuring to compete for the 60m, (i)200m, (i)4x400m, 100m, (o)200m, 4x100m, and (o)4x400m during the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The Bowerman
The Bowerman is bestowed to collegiate track & field’s top male and female athlete for the year. The Bowerman Advisory Board, and ultimately, The Bowerman Voters, are instructed to consider performances inclusively from the collegiate indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons only. Cross country results are not within this consideration. The current collective track & field season began on November 29, 2024 and will end on June 14, 2025.
The Watch List
Members of The Bowerman Advisory Board produce these watch lists by voting on their current top-10 “who’s who” among collegiate track & field athletes. The “watch list” represents the group’s consensus top 10 for that update. Those “receiving votes” are listed on at least one member’s top 10 but did not garner enough votes to be listed in the consensus top 10. There is a total of eight watch lists during the season.
Men’s Watch List – Midseason Update No. 1
Mykolas Alekna, California (Discus)
Johnny Brackins, Jr., Southern California (Hurdles/Jumps)
*Trey Knight, CSUN (Throws)
*Wanya McCoy, Florida (Sprints)
Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, Ole Miss (Throws)
Habtom Samuel, New Mexico (Distance)
Ethan Strand, North Carolina (Mid-Distance/Distance)
Ja’Kobe Tharp, Auburn (Hurdles)
Sam Whitmarsh, Texas A&M (Mid-Distance)
Parker Wolfe, North Carolina (Distance)
* making watch list career debuts
Also receiving votes:
Favour Ashe, Oregon (Sprints)
Graham Blanks^, Harvard (Distance)
Nathaniel Ezekiel, Baylor (Sprints/Hurdles)
Eli Kosiba, Grand Valley State (Jumps)
Abdullahi Hassan, Mississippi State (Mid-Distance)
Chinecherem Nnamdi, Baylor (Javelin)
Samuel Ogazi, Alabama (Sprints)
Tarsis Orogot, Alabama (Sprints)
Jonathan Seremes, Missouri (Jumps)
Aleksandr Solovev, Texas A&M (Pole Vault)
JC Stevenson, Southern California (Sprints/Jumps)
Keyshawn Strachan, Nebraska (Javelin)
