Cal Track and Field: Camryn Rogers Honored as British Columbia's Senior Athlete of Year

Cal hammer throw specialist Camryn Rogers, who won her second NCAA championship last spring before finishing fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, has been named the British Columbia Athletics Senior Female Athlete of the Year.

Rogers, 22, currently is a senior on the Bears’ track and field team, in the midst of the collegiate indoor season before the outdoor campaign begins early this spring.

A native of Richmond, B.C., Rogers had a breakout season for Cal in 2019, winning her first NCAA title in the hammer. The 2020 collegiate outdoor season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rogers took her game to a higher level last year, going undefeated as a collegiate thrower again and dominating the NCAA championships. She broke the all-time NCAA record twice in the meet, winning with a best throw of 247 feet, 9 inches 75.52 meters), which ranked sixth in the world in 2021.

At Tokyo, Rogers was briefly the leader before settling for fifth place — the highest Olympic finish ever for a Canadian woman in the event — with a throw of 243-11 (74.35 meters).

World-recordholder Anita Włodarczyk of Poland won her third straight Olympic gold medal, reinforcing her reputation as the event’s best ever.

Rogers earned her first-ever Track and Field News world ranking at No. 8 for 2021. She was the youngest by four years of any athlete in the top-10.

She also was a semifinalist for the Bowerman Award, given to the top college athlete in the country.

The two other finalists for the BC Athlete of the Year award were heptathlete Georgia Ellenwood, who finished 20th at the Olympics last summer, and 3,000 steeplechase specialist Regan Yee, who ran in the semifinals at the Tokyo Games.

Rogers has set Cal’s record for the indoor weight throw this season with a mark of 75 feet, 5 1/4 inches (22.08 meters), which ranks 12th nationally. The NCAA indoor championships will be held March 11-12 in Birmingham, Alabama, with the outdoor season getting under way a week later.

Cover photo of Camryn Rogers courtesy of BC Athletics

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo