Five Big 12 squads earned this season’s Big 12 indoor track & field yearly awards with Texas Tech leading the pack with three honors in Caleb Dean (Men’s Performer), Wes Kittley (Men’s Coach) and Temitope Adeshina (Women’s Outstanding Freshman).
Baylor’s Demario Prince co-shared Men’s Outstanding Freshman with Oklahoma State’s Denis Kipngetich while Houston’s Kelly-Ann Beckford was voted Women’s Performer. Texas’ Edrick Floréal earned Women’s Coach of the Year to round out this season’s selections. Awards were voted on by Big 12 head coaches who were not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.
Dean claims his second consecutive Men’s Performer of the Year after earning the Men’s High Point at the 2024 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championship with 17.5 points. He finished second in the 60-meter hurdles and the 60-meter dash while he was the first leg of the TTU 4x400-meter relay team that cliched the gold medal and set a program record of 3:02.76. During the season, he led the NCAA in the 60-meter hurdles until his record was broken last week. He currently sits second in the 60-meter hurdles (7.55) while he is No. 6 in the men’s 60-meter dash with a personal best of 6.52 in the latter.
Prince set a BU program record in the 60-meter hurdles in his third appearance this season at the Big 12 Championship. The freshman recorded a season-best time of 7.62 seconds during his second-place finish in the preliminary round before recording the same time in the finals to finish fourth. His time overthrew an 18-year-old BU program-leading time of 7.66 that was set by Jerome Miller at the 2006 NCAA Championships.
Kipngetich is the first Cowboy to earn Men’s Outstanding Freshman since 2014. Coming off the cross country season where he earned the Big 12 Men’s Newcomer honor, he recorded the Conference’s second-fastest time in the 5,000 meters (13:26.34) and the fifth-best time this season in the 3,000 meters (7:44.78). Kipngetich earned six points at the Big 12 Championship with a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters, crossing the finish line at 13:49.95.
Coach Kittley led the Red Raiders to their second consecutive Big 12 indoor title and their third overall track & field title after the team also claimed the 2023 Big 12 Outdoor victory. Texas Tech scored 152 points while the team procured five men’s Big 12 gold medals.
Beckford is the first student-athlete from Houston to set records for the program in its first season in the Big 12. Her performance at the Big 12 Championship began with a record-setting 2:00.99 in the women’s 800 meters where she set a meet, facility and program record. It was her career-best time in the event and currently sits at No. 3 in this season’s performance list. The Houston senior was then in the women’s 4x400 relay squad that earned the gold medal with a meet record time of 3:29.42.
Adeshina is the second Red Raider to earn the Women’s Outstanding Freshman nod and the first in 14 years. At the Big 12 Championship, the freshman only needed four jumps to claim the gold medal in the high jump after clearing 1.90 meters. Throughout the season, Adeshina was this season’s leader in the high jump at 1.96 meters before a mark of 2.00 meters overthrew her season-best jump.
Floréal collected his fifth Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year award following the Longhorns’ 14th Big 12 indoor title. During the meet, the team tallied 135 points and seven individual titles.
2024 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Awards
Men’s Performer of the Year: Caleb Dean, Texas Tech
Men’s Outstanding Freshman: Demario Prince, Baylor and Denis Kipngetich, Oklahoma State
Men’s Coach of the Year: Wes Kittley, Texas Tech
Women’s Performer of the Year: Kelly-Ann Beckford, Houston
Women’s Outstanding Freshman: Temitope Adeshina, Texas Tech
Women’s Coach of the Year: Edrick Floréal, Texas