Donovyn Fowler named boys track and field athlete of year

Jul. 20—Donovyn Fowler set Joplin High School records while proving to be among the top track and field athletes in the state.

The junior set program records in the triple and long jumps and capped the season with two podium finishes at the Class 5 MSHSAA Track and Field Championships in late May at Adkins Stadium in Jefferson City, placing second in the triple (47 feet, 7.25 inches) and fourth in the long (22-10.75) to help lift the Eagles to a ninth-place finish in the boys state meet.

Fowler has been named the Globe's male track and field athlete of the year for the 2020-21 school year.

At the Class 5 Sectional 3 meet in Carthage, Fowler broke his own school record in the long jump with a mark of 49-11. Earlier in the year, he set the school record in the long jump with a leap of 23-10.

Fowler was also a state qualifier in the 200-meter dash as well as the 4x100 relay with Trayshawn Thomas, Dominick Simmons and Luke Vieselmeyer. Fowler finished the campaign ranked by MileSplit USA as a top-50 recruit in the nation for the class of 2022.

"He had an outstanding year," former Joplin track coach Brandon Taute, now the head football coach at Neosho, said. "With the year off from COVID, you never knew what to expect coming back. We knew he had top-end talent from his freshman year, but we really didn't know how much he would progress. But he came out in the first meet of the year and broke the long jump record. He just continued to get better as the year went along, and especially in the triple jump. As a sprinter, he was pretty dominant in the 200 all year in southwest Missouri. and then he did a tremendous job as the anchor of our 4x100, running a lot of people down and being the heart of that relay for us.

"Donovyn is definitely one of the top recruits in his class, and he had one of the top triple jumps in the nation for all ages. So he has a bright future ahead of him."

Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.