Van Niekerk, Crouser, Lyles and Cunningham Top the DyeStat Performers of the Year

Track and field fans voiced their choices in DyeStat's four Performers of the Year polls, while DyeStat's editors selected the DyeStat Performer of the Year for pro, college, high school boys and high school girls. 

Pro Performer of the Year

Readers’ Choice: Wayde Van Niekerk

With 31.98 percent of the vote, South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, the Olympic 400-meter gold medalist, won our Readers’ Choice vote, edging out American Matthew Centrowitz and his second-place tally of 25.51 percent.

Van Niekerk clearly inspired fans in Rio with his one-lap victory in 43.03, breaking Michael Johnson’s illustrious 400 world record of 43.18, a mark that had stood since 1999 and was considered one of the toughest to beat in the sport.

DyeStat Choice: Wayde Van Niekerk

Back in March, Van Niekerk broke the 10-second barrier for the first time, running a 9.98 clocking for the 100. That performance made Van Niekerk the first in history to run sub-10 for 100 meters, sub-20 for 200 and sub-44 for 400.

Add that to his earth-shattering performance in Rio, his ability to consistently edge both LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James, both considered all-time top 10 talents in the 400, and it’s easy to see Van Niekerk as the future face of track and field as Usain Bolt gets ready for his final season.

To break a 17-year-old record, on the world’s biggest stage, from the outside lane against one of the best fields in the event’s history, well, that’s why Van Niekerk is our Performer of the Year.

College Performer of the Year

Readers’ Choice: Clayton Murphy

The former Akron Zips’ star got 21.69 percent of the vote in a field of 16 college stars who had big success in 2016. Oregon’s Edward Cheserek was next on the list with 12.54 percent.

Murphy’s mind-boggling progression from small-school Ohio state champion to Olympic bronze medalist in the 800 meters (1:42.97) made him one of the most exciting American track athletes of the entire year and also one of the most popular.

DyeStat Choice: Ryan Crouser

With all due respect to Murphy, who was amazing, and Bowerman Award winners Jarrion Lawson and Courtney Okolo, both deserving of recognition, there is only one athlete who began 2016 as an NCAA Division 1 track and field athlete and ended the season with an Olympic gold medal.

Crouser, who graduated from Texas with a master’s degree in business in May, quickly transitioned to full-time throwing and with the help of his father and coach, Mitch Crouser, became an Olympic champion. Not only that, Crouser broke the Olympic record in the shot put with his 73-foot, 10.75-inch mark.

High School Boys Performer of the Year

Readers’ Choice: Drew Hunter

It’s easy to understand how Hunter accumulated 27.49 percent of the vote to beat a stellar field of high school boys from 2016. Hunter might be the best American-born distance runner since Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb and Galen Rupp came up more than a decade ago. He shattered the four-minute mile barrier three times and his epic comeback in the distance medley relay at the Penn Relays cemented his legend for anyone who was there to see it.

The end of his season tailed off a bit. A bout of Lyme disease prevented him from mounting challenges to the high school records in the 3,200/2-mile or 5,000 meters. But he did make additional history by turning professional straight out of Virginia’s Loudoun Valley High School.

DyeStat Choice: Noah Lyles

The Olympic Trials were turned on their head when prep sprint sensations Michael Norman of Vista Murrieta CA and Lyles of T.C. Williams VA started winning heats of the 200 against grown men. But it happened, and Lyles and Norman brought a jolt of electric excitement every time they got into the blocks at Hayward Field.

In the final, with Olympic berths on the line, Lyles finished fourth and Norman was fifth. Lyles ran 20.09 and broke the national high school record. There was some initial debate about whether he deserved a spot on the U.S. Olympic relay pool. Lyles also went on to take the gold medal in the 100 in 10.17 at the U-20 World Championships, in addition to teaming with Norman, Brandon Taylor and Hakim Montgomery to win another title in the 4x100 in 38.93, the fifth-fastest junior time in history.

High School Girls Performer of the Year

Readers’ Choice: Emma Fitzgerald

The largest percentage of recognition in any category went to Thayer Academy MA talent, who accumulated 45.35 percent of the vote to edge a pair of Olympians, including Sydney McLaughlin, who received 32.58 percent. Fitzgerald put together one of the most impressive years ever by a prep heptathlete, culminating with a personal-best 2:25.23 in the 800 meters to secure an eighth-place finish at the U-20 World Championships. She finished the year as the No. 12 ranked junior in the world.

Fitzgerald, who captured New Balance Nationals Outdoor and U.S. Junior National titles, amassed 5,577 points in Poland, the highest total by a high school female in four years and just one point short of Kendell Williams’ national high school record. Fitzgerald, a Wisconsin signee, elevated to the No. 7 American U-20 performer all-time in the heptathlon. She also concluded her final prep season with a lifetime-best 166-1 in the javelin, which ranked No. 4 nationally for the year.

DyeStat Choice: Vashti Cunningham

Although Fitzgerald is one of the country’s most promising young all-around athletes, no American teenager was more dominant in one event than the 18-year-old Cunningham, who captured U.S. and World Indoor high jump titles during her senior year at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas before signing a professional contract with Nike.

Entering the year, Cunningham had already set national high school and American Junior records in the outdoor high jump, before establishing new all-time standards indoors with her 6-6.25 clearance at the U.S. Championships in March in Portland. Cunningham followed that performance by becoming the youngest American female to win a World Indoor title by clearing 6-5, defeating eventual Olympic gold medalist Ruth Beitia of Spain. After turning professional, Cunningham improved on her American Junior outdoor record by clearing 6-5.50 to place second at the Olympic Trials, before finishing 13th in her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro.