University of Kentucky Track & Field star and WWE NIL signee Masai Russell could cap off her career as a Wildcat on a high note.
Masai, a member of WWE’s first NIL class, is on the 10-person Bowerman Watchlist. You can read the full details below, via the University Of Kentucky athletics department:
Masai Russell Remains on The Bowerman Watchlist
University of Kentucky track & field hurdler Masai Russell is one of ten collegiate track & field athletes to be named to the Mid-Outdoor edition of The Bowerman Watchlist by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The USTFCCCA announced the latest edition of a 10-person watch list for The Bowerman, which takes into consideration both the indoor and outdoor seasons. This year’s finalists will be announced in December.
This is Russell’s fourth inclusion on The Bowerman watchlist after appearing on the first two watch lists released this year.
The graduate student from Potomac, Maryland, set a collegiate record of 12.36 in winning the Texas Relays 100-meter hurdles, breaking the 12.39 set by 2013 The Bowerman winner Brianna Rollins. She has also run 55.39 in the 400 hurdles (third on the seasonal list) and carried the baton on Kentucky’s 42.81 4×100 relay team (second on the seasonal list). Indoors she was runner-up in the NCAA Indoor 60 hurdles, matching her personal best of 7.75 which was a collegiate record in January.
Russell is the eighth UK female athlete to make the watch list since the award began in 2009 and the first since Abby Steiner won the award last year.
WWE has signed several other collegiate track & field athletes to NIL deals.
Ohio State University Buckeye Carlos Aviles also signed on the dotted line in 2021, as well as Aleeya Hutchins of Wake Forest, and Riley White from the University of Alabama.
In 2022, Chandler Hayden from the University of Tennessee, South Carolina’s Rachel Glenn, and Arkansas Razorback Ruben Banks also inked WWE NIL deals.
WWE announced a new class of Name, Image & Likeness recruits in January, featuring LSU Tiger Alia Armstrong, Tori Ortiz of Oklahoma State, and Turner Washington from Arizona State.
