By USTFCCCA Communications, USTFCCCA
January 15, 2026  
Habtom Samuel smashed the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in
a course-record 59:01, extending a six-month unbeaten streak that included the
NCAA DI cross country individual title last November in Columbia, Missouri.
Despite that dominant debut on the roads, the New Mexico standout has bigger fish to fry than cashing in on a big payday and possible professional contract according to coach Darren Gauson.
“His goal is to win The Bowerman,” Gauson told
LetsRun.com after the race.
That’s exactly why the USTFCCCA introduced The Bowerman
in 2009 – to give collegiate track & field athletes a historical benchmark –
like their football counterparts have with the Heisman Trophy. And now, more
than a decade-and-a-half later, Gauson’s words and Samuel’s aspiration cement
what we already knew: The Bowerman matters.
Samuel’s record-breaking performance in Houston won’t count toward consideration for The Bowerman, as the award is only based on what happens on the track and in the field during the collegiate season – but his win at last month’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener sure will. Samuel went 13:05.21 over 5000 meters in Boston for the sixth-fastest mark in collegiate history. That also became the quickest 5k race ever run in collegiate history, as both Villanova’s Marco Langon and Virginia’s Gary Martin cracked the all-time top ten with the seventh- and eighth-fastest marks.
Across events, this season has already seen its share of
historic marks.
BYU freshman phenom Jane Hedengren shattered the collegiate record in the women’s 5000 meters with her 14:44.79 effort at the same meet where Samuel, Langon, and Martin treated fans to an all-time duel. Nebraska’s Axelina Johansson threw 19.72m (64-8½) to set a collegiate shot put record and produced four other additional top-eight marks in the same series. Georgia’s Jonathan Simms became the fourth fastest man in world history (and collegiate history) in the 400 meters when he ran 44.62 this past weekend at the Clemson Invitational.
All-time marks bolster résumés, but they don’t assure The
Bowerman by themselves: winning when it counts does, particularly at NCAA
Championships.
“Last year, he got a lot of seconds, a couple to his
teammates,” Gauson said of Samuel, “so he’d love to go to indoor and outdoor
unbeaten.”
