BYU Track and Field Announces 2019 Pugsley Award Nominees

PROVO, Utah – BYU track and field announced that Erica Birk-Jarvis, Andrea Stapleton-Johnson, Clayton Young and Conner Mantz have been nominated as finalists for the 2019 Curtis Pugsley Athlete of the Year Award.

These athletes were nominated based on their performances during the 2019 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons. The Curtis Pugsley Award is BYU track and field’s highest recognition and is given every year to one male and one female athlete. The award is named in honor of former BYU track and field athlete (2000-2004), Curtis Pugsley, who passed away in 2013 after his battle with cancer. During his time at BYU, Pugsley earned multiple All-America honors and won a conference championship in the decathlon.

Birk-Jarvis received All-America Honors in three different events during the 2019 indoor and outdoor track season. She became the 3,000-meter BYU school record holder in indoor track after posting a time of 9:00.69. She made the first-team All-America team during the indoor season after she took second in the distance medley relay (10:54.14) at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships and she was a first-team All-American after she placed fifth in the 3000m (9:05.62) at the same championship meet. In the outdoor season, she was named a first-team All-American as she finished fifth in the 3000m Steeplechase (9:46.47) at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. She also set a personal-best and new school record at the MPSF Indoor Championships where she placed first in the mile with a time of 4:34.59. In addition to those performances she placed first in the 5000m with a No. 1 school-record time of 15:38.12 at the Stanford Invitational and clocked 9:42.54 for the fastest 3000m Steeplechase in school history at the NCAA West Preliminary Round and to finish second overall. 

Stapleton-Johnson was named a 2019 first-team All-American during the indoor track season and finished eighth in the high jump (1.81m/5-11.25) at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships. At the 2019 MPSF Indoor Championships, Stapleton Johnson took third place for the Cougars with a mark of 1.79m/5-10.5. In the outdoor season, she also cleared an NCAA-leading mark of 1.89m/6-2.5 in the high jump to become the BYU record holder. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she earned second-team All-America honors.

The 10,000-meter outdoor track and field champion, Clayton Young is one of the two men's nominees. Young won the 10,000m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 29:16.60 and received first-team All-America Honors. Also during the outdoor season, he was named to the All-America First Team after he finished sixth in the 5000m (14:09.00) at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships. During the indoor season, he earned first-team All-America honors in two events after placing third in the 5000m (13:45.35) at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships and sixth in the 3000m (7:55.86) at the same championship meet. 

Sophomore Conner Mantz was outstanding for the Cougars during both seasons of track and field. At the 2019 Indoor National Championships, Mantz was named to the All-American First Team after finishing seventh in the 3000m (7:56.72). He was also named to the All-America Second Team after finishing 10th in the 5000m (13:51.45) at the same meet. In the outdoor season, he was named to the 2019 All-America First Team after finishing fourth in the 10,000m (29:19.93) at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships and seventh in the 5000m (14:09.20).

Whittni Orton and Rory Linkletter won the 2018 Curtis Pugsley Award. The two All-Americans were joined by Abraham Alvarado and Brenna Porter as finalists.

The winner is determined by a scoring system based on accomplishments in the 2019 indoor and outdoor seasons. Points are awarded for performance at indoor and outdoor championships, All-America recognition, school records set or broken and BYU top-10 placement. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony held at 7 p.m. in room 251 in the Tanner Building on Tuesday, Dec. 3. BYUtv’s Jason Shepherd will be emceeing the event. A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. prior to the ceremony.