Georgia’s Keturah Orji won the biggest award in college track and field, as she won the 2018 Bowerman award. She had previously been named the NCAA’s Woman of the Year for 2018 as well. The Bowerman is the highest individual award a track and field athlete can win, as it goes to the top male and female athlete in the sport.

Orji is the first Bulldog, male or female, to ever win the award, and only the second female SEC winner. She beat out Kentucky’ Sydney McLaughlin and Arizona’s Maggie Ewen for the award this year. Orji is also the only 3-time finalist in the history of the Bowerman Award. Orji is from Mount Olive, N.J., and in her senior season won SEC and NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in the triple jump and long jump.

On top of being the SEC Field Athlete of the Year indoors and outdoors and the league’s Scholar Athlete of the Year, Orji was named the USTFCCCA National Women’s Field Athlete of the Year during both seasons last year.

While at Georgia, Orji became the best triple jumper in the country. She set the national and collegiate records in the indoor triple jump while at Georgia and holds the collegiate record for the outdoor triple jump as well.

Orji — who was fourth by only three centimeters in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro — is a 15-time First Team All-American and eight-time NCAA individual national champion (four times in the outdoor triple jump, three times in the indoor triple jump and once in the outdoor long jump).  Her performance in those events helped Georgia win its 2018 NCAA indoor team title and finish as the national runner-up three more times.

Orji was also a standout student while at Georgia, as she was named the SEC’s SEC Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year three times at Georgia. She is now pursuing a graduate degree at Georgia and is a volunteer assistant with the Bulldog track and field program.