DENVER - Grand Canyon's Josh Ralston and UT Rio Grande Valley's Javier Carretero have been named Western Athletic Conference Track and Field Athletes of the week, respectively, for Feb. 8-14.
Ralston, a senior from Detriot, Mich. (Hamilton) won the 400 meters with a time of 47.74 which is a season-best and personal-best indoors for the senior from Detroit, Mich. Ralston's time also ranks him No. 1 in the WAC. Ralston also ran on the second leg of the 4x400 meter relay which won the event with a season-best time of 3:13.10, also the No. 1 ranked time in the WAC.
Carretero, a senior from Montijo, Badajoz, Spain (Club Atletismo Montijo) set a new personal best in the weight throw at the Howie Ryan Invitational after hitting a mark of 17.51 meters, which ranks the third farthest in program history and currently is the best in the WAC. He used his career best to finish in second place out of 35 throwers.
Other track nominees: Missouri-Kansas City's Chadayne Walker continues to improve with every meet, posting a 6.91 second 60-meter dash time in the prelims, placing second, before running a slightly-slower finals time of 6.92 seconds for fourth in the event. His preliminary round time has him in third-place in the current WAC performance lists. Seattle U's Gus Arroyo ran he second-fastest time in indoor school history in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 14:44.82. His time puts him at third in the WAC. UT Rio Grande Valley's Yariel Matute posted a second place finish in the 400-meter dash after crossing the finish line in a time of 49.71 seconds as he finished just behind the first place finisher, who finished with a time of 49.59 seconds. He teamed with Trevion Williams, File Patiño and Anthony Magallon to post a fourth place finish in the 4x400-meter relay after they finished with a time of 3:24.61. Utah Valley's Nick Taylor ran the 200m dash for the first time in two years and set the school record in the event at 21.11 seconds for third place overall. He also ran the 60m dash in 6.75 seconds, good enough for fourth place overall.
Other field nominees: Chicago State's Kory Jackson captured his third consecutive long jump title at the Chicagoland Championships after recording a jump of 23-00.50 (7.02 meters) in his final tune-up for next week's WAC Championships. The mark is Jackson's second best of the indoor season and he is now second in the WAC standings. Grand Canyon's Scott Marshall won the men's pole vault at the NAU Invitational with a mark of 5.07 meters, 4 centimeters shy of his conference leading mark of 5.11 meters, set at the Mountain T's Invitational two weeks ago. Missouri-Kansas City's Jeremy Harr put up a career-best mark in the triple jump on Friday, taking third-place with a jump of 14.51 meters. The leap is now the best mark in the WAC this season. Seattle U's Shaddye Melu tied his personal record in the high jump - also the current indoor school record set by himself almost exactly one year ago - with a height of 2.11 meters (6'-11â€). This height gave him a second-place finish based on jumps.