Three of Jamaica’s finest collegiate athletes – Bert Cameron, Diane Guthrie, and Gillian Russell – received one of the highest honors in U.S. college athletics on Sunday night, as they were inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame.
The 2025 induction ceremony, held at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon, recognized 12 outstanding athletes whose collegiate careers transformed the landscape of track and field and cross country. The inductees included Cameron, Guthrie, and Russell alongside Amy Acuff (UCLA), Cathy Branta (Wisconsin), Joaquim Cruz (Oregon), Joe Falcon (Arkansas), Larance Jones (Truman), Madeline Manning (Tennessee State), Scott Neilson (Washington), Suziann Reid (Texas), and Spec Towns (Georgia).
Bert Cameron, a standout at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), captured five NCAA Division I 400-meter titles – three outdoors and two indoors – between 1980 and 1983. Hailing from Spanish Town, Jamaica, Cameron was instrumental in UTEP’s dominance during the early 1980s, contributing to six NCAA team titles (three indoor, three outdoor). His 44.58-second winning time at the 1981 NCAA Outdoor Championships was not only a collegiate record but also the fastest time in the world that year. He followed up with times of 44.69 in 1982 and 44.62 in 1983, ranking second globally in both seasons. At the conclusion of his college career, Cameron owned the three fastest in-season collegiate performances in history and would later win the inaugural World Championships 400m title in 1983.
Diane Guthrie, who represented George Mason University, established herself as one of the most versatile athletes in collegiate history. She captured five NCAA Division I titles – three in the long jump and two in the heptathlon – during her collegiate career from 1991 to 1995. Originally from Santa Cruz, Jamaica, Guthrie made history in 1994 when she became the first athlete to win NCAA titles in both a combined event and an individual event. Her 1995 heptathlon score of 6527 points set a collegiate record that still stands today. That same year, she scored 23 of George Mason’s 29½ points to lead the Patriots to a fifth-place finish – the best in school history. Her long jump dominance began as a freshman in 1991 with a sweep of the indoor and outdoor titles. She never finished lower than third in the NCAA in either long jump or heptathlon and also scored points in the high jump, underscoring her exceptional range and athleticism.
Gillian Russell, from Kingston, Jamaica, left an indelible mark at the University of Miami (Fla.), where she won five NCAA Division I titles – three outdoors in the 100-meter hurdles and two indoors in the 55-meter hurdles – between 1992 and 1995. Russell made an immediate impact as a freshman, becoming the first-ever NCAA track and field champion – male or female – for the Hurricanes when she won the 55-meter hurdles title indoors. By the end of her collegiate career, she became the first woman to win three NCAA 100-meter hurdle titles. Her 1994 victory in the event was particularly dominant, as she won by 0.40 seconds – the largest margin in NCAA history for the discipline. She was also only the second woman to reach four consecutive NCAA finals in the 100-meter hurdles, a testament to her consistency and elite performance throughout her college career.
The USTFCCCA Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame was established in 2022 to recognize athletes who left a lasting legacy on collegiate track and field and cross country. With this latest class, that legacy now proudly includes three more Jamaican greats.