Bikembo, Vogelsang Named B1G Freshmen of the Year

IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa track and field freshmen Pauline Bikembo and Abraham Vogelsang were named Big Ten Indoor Freshmen of the Year, it was announced Wednesday by the conference.

Bikembo, a native of Saint Lue La Foret, France, is Iowa’s first indoor women’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year since Erica Broomfield claimed the honor in 1998. She is the second Hawkeye woman to win the award in conference history.

In her first year of collegiate competition, Bikembo earned first-team All-American honors after placing fourth in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a school-record 4,331 points. She was the Big Ten champion in the event with a then-program best of 4,330 points and claimed first-team all-Big Ten honors. Bikembo was Iowa’s first pentathlon conference champion since Tria Simmons in 2019.

Bikembo holds three marks inside Iowa’s top ten list, including the pentathlon school record. She ranks third in the long jump at 6.33 meters and is tied for fourth in the high jump at 1.79 meters.

Vogelsang, a freshman from Oslo, Norway, is the Hawkeyes’ first men’s Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year since Jeremy Allen in 1998. It is the third time a Hawkeye has been named the men’s Big Ten Indoor Freshman of the Year in league history.

In his rookie campaign, Vogelsang placed sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the heptathlon with 5,810 points. On the Big Ten stage, Vogelsang was the league’s highest-ranked freshman in the heptathlon.

Vogelsang’s 5,882 points at the Dr. Rick McGuire Invite in Columbia, Missouri, on Feb. 1 earned the event title and elevated him to third all-time in school history. Along with his heptathlon point total, Vogelsang enters Iowa’s top ten at third in the pole vault at 5.15 meters.

The Hawkeyes start the outdoor season on Friday at the UCF Black and Gold Invitational in Orlando, Florida.