As someone who was once a top seed of an NCAA Championships only to burst into flames, my heart goes out to all the favorites who faltered under the Texas sun. Of the 10 men on the Bowerman watch list heading into the NCAA DI Championships, only two won an NCAA title. (There is a reason I clarify DI.)

Honestly, the meet was a bit of a shit show for the favorites – only three out of the top seeded men delivered a victory – the other 16 events saw an upset. But that’s what makes this sport so beautiful and why we don’t go off rankings or vote on the winners for national titles. Speaking of, can someone who is in charge of the Bowerman voting tap me in? I have knowledgeable opinions!

The only guy to win more than one individual title was Stanford’s Ky Robinson, first taking the 10,000m in 28:10 with a final 400m of 54.1 and then the 5000m in 14:04, closing in 55.4. Ky ran 13:11 indoors and finished 23rd at World XC for Australia. He’s only a junior and will have his choice of what team to sign with if and when he wants to. But without a conference title and a high place of 7th indoors, it just isn’t a Bowerman year.

There’s Arizona’s Jordan Geist who backed up his indoor shot put title with another one outdoors, tossing the heavy ball 21.06m. That’s farther than I can throw, and I say this respectfully since he still might be a finalist, it’s just not going to be enough.

Then there is Cordell Tinch from Pittsburgh State, or as he is colloquially known, “that DII guy.” I didn’t even know that non-Division I athletes were eligible until Tinch dominated this outdoor season, taking three individual titles at the national meet in the high jump (2.21m), long jump (8.16m), and 110H (12.87). Those marks would’ve placed him 4th, 2nd, and 1st respectively at the DI championships. Granted, the 12.87 had a +6.0 wind and was the fastest all-conditions time ever, however, his 13.21 from prelims was wind-legal and also faster than any guy with a fancier locker room ran this year.

But I’m not sure that’ll be enough for him to win. Fair or not, there’s a mentality of ‘if you want to beat the big dogs then you have to compete against the big dogs.’ Comparing times across divisions of NCAA championships is sort of like looking at the winning time of the 2016 Olympic men’s 1500m and assuming that anyone reading this could win it.

That’s why my vote would go to Arkansas’s Jaydon Hibbert and his triple jump dominance, getting out to 17.56m on his first jump into a headwind. His resume may lack the diversity of multiple events, but I’m sure he’d have done quite well in the long jump. Indoors he broke the collegiate record once, and then did it again at the SEC meet, going 17.87m, which is the current world leader. I don’t know if there are style points on the rubric (since no one has invited me yet… :( ), but doing all this at 18 years old and with only a 12-step approach, he probably deserves some.