PROVO, Utah – Rory Linkletter and Shea Collinsworth received the 2017 Curtis Pugsley Award, BYU track and field’s highest honor, on Tuesday evening.
The award honors the late Curtis Pugsley, a former BYU All-American and conference champion decathlete who passed away in 2013 after battling cancer. Pugsley’s father-in-law Gary Williams has played a significant role in donating and making the event possible each year.
The award is given to one male and one female athlete annually. A scoring system based on accomplishments during the indoor and outdoor seasons determines the winner.
Linkletter ran the sixth-best time in school history and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5000m after clocking a 13:49.00 at the Iowa State Classic. The second-team indoor All-American finished second overall in the 5000m (13:59.49) at the MPSF Indoor Championships and took 11th in the 5000m (13:57.62) at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The sophomore qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships after clocking a 29:51.63 to take second place in the 10000m at the NCAA West Prelims. Linkletter was named a first-team All-American after taking second overall in the 10000m at the NCAA Championships with a time of 29:02.96.
Collinsworth won the Curtis Puglsey Award in 2016 as well. The indoor and outdoor first-team All-American broke the BYU indoor record in the 800m with at time of 2:01.42. She followed up that record-breaking performance a couple weeks later with another by clocking a 4:35.76 in the mile to set the new all-time record at BYU. Collinsworth concluded the indoor season taking first overall in the 800m at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 2:02.35. During the outdoor season, Collinsworth ran a 2:01.51 in the 800m to mark the third fastest time in BYU’s outdoor track history. She finished 10th in the 800m (2:05.09) at the NCAA West Prelims and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Collinsworth finished her career with a fourth place finish in the 800m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (2:02.30).