DENVER ? Louisiana Tech’s Albert Fullwood and Idaho’s Russ Winger have been named the Western Athletic Conference Men’s Indoor Track and Field Athletes of the Week for the week of Feb. 11-17. This is the first career WAC Indoor Athlete of the Week honor for Fullwood and the sixth career honor for Winger, winning three times this season, once as a junior and two times his sophomore season. This is the first season that honors for both “Track” and “Field” athletes will be awarded each week.
Fullwood, a sophomore from Shreveport, La., (C.E. Byrd), ran a school record-breaking 47.42 in the 400-meter dash at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., breaking a 13-year old Bulldog record. His 400-meter time places Fullwood atop the WAC standings by nearly a full second.
Winger, a senior from Colorado Springs, Colo., (Pine Creek), took down the Washington Dempsey Indoor facility record in the shot put at the Husky Classic with a season-best toss of 66’ 6.5”, winning the event by nearly eight feet and breaking the previous facility record by a foot. The throw is the second-best of Winger’s indoor career and is the best in the WAC by more than 10 feet. It is also the 10th-best throw in the world this year and the second-best in the nation. Winger also took sixth in the 35-pound weight throw with a toss of 63’ 11”.
Other Track nominees included: Nick Taylor of Boise State won the qualifying portion of the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.79, which is fifth in the WAC this season, and also ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x400-meter relay team, posting a season-best time of 3:21.65 in the event ... Paul Dittmer of Idaho ran just short of record pace in the 60-meter hurdles at the Husky Classic, placing second overall and recording a time of 7.97, extending his WAC lead in the event for the fifth-straight week ... Steve Strickland of Utah State improved his WAC-leading time in the 3,000-meter run by four seconds with a 8:20.21 which is the third-best time in Aggie history.
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