Former Florida track and field runner Parker Valby won The Bowerman, the highest individual honor in collegiate track and field, Thursday night in Orlando.
Valby’s 2024 season was one for the history books. The 22-year-old Tampa native set three NCAA records this spring (two of which remain standing) on her way to winning four national titles. Including her win at the NCAA Cross Country Championships from November 2023, which was not taken into consideration for The Bowerman, she was the first female runner in collegiate history to win five individual national titles in one academic year.
Valby went undefeated on the track during her final collegiate season. She kicked the year off with a then-NCAA record in the indoor 5,000m of 14:56.11 in Boston last December. With this run, she became the first female collegiate runner to ever break the 15-minute barrier for 5,000m. Three months later, she broke her own record at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 14:52.79. The next day, she recorded the third-fastest time in NCAA history over the indoor 3,000m en route to winning a national championship in that event.
In her first race of the 2024 outdoor track and field season, Valby broke the previous record in the 10,000m by 28 seconds, completing 25 laps in 30:50.43. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she won the 5,000m with a time of 14:52.18, a new outdoor collegiate record, and completed the season sweep of NCAA women’s track and field long-distance titles with her victory in the 10,000m.
While races outside of the NCAA season are not considered for The Bowerman, Valby found plenty of success beyond the collegiate stage as well. A second-place finish in the 10,000m at the U.S. Olympic Trials secured her spot on Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she would go on to finish 11th in the women’s 10,000m.
Valby beat out Oregon shot putter Jaida Ross and Harvard mid-distance star Maia Ramsden to claim The Bowerman. Texas decathlete Leo Neugebauer won the award on the men’s side. She joins Marquis Dendy (2015) and Grant Holloway (2019) as the only Gators to have won The Bowerman. UF is now tied with LSU, Texas A&M and Texas for the second-most winners of The Bowerman in NCAA history.
Having signed with New Balance and now training in Boston, Valby will make her professional debut on Feb. 2 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at paulhofmahoney@ufl.edu. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney
