Feb. 26, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Utah Valley's Allah Laryea-Akrong and South Dakota's Bethany Buell have been selected Great West Conference Student-Athletes of the Month for January. The awards were announced Friday by the conference office.

Laryea-Akrong took first place in all six finals he raced in during January, winning the 60m and 300m at the BYU Cougar Invitational, the 60m and 200m at the Bengal Shootout at Idaho State and the 60m and 200m at the Boise State Duals. The freshman from Ghana broke three school records including the 60-meter dash twice (6.88 & 6.80--once in a prelim and in the final) and the men's 200-meter dash (21.54). Laryea-Akrong was named the GWC Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week on Jan. 22.

Buell broke the University of South Dakota school record in the pole vault twice during the month of January to earn two-time GWC Athlete-of-the-Week honors. Buell began the month by clearing 12-11 1/2 to win the Holiday Inn Invite on Jan. 15 and followed with a 13-3 showing to win the USD Alumni Meet on Jan. 23. The mark was the 13th best in NCAA Division I at the time. The freshman from St. Louis, Mo., also competed at the prestigious National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev. on Jan. 30 and finished second in her division.

Others nominated for student-athlete of the month were Jonathon Majors and Courtney Waldon (Chicago State), Andrew Gonzalez and Cindee Wright (Houston Baptist), Jheryl Wilson and Jessica Gerald (NJIT), Josh LaBlanc and Mallory Youngblut (North Dakota), Roman Gentry (South Dakota), Luis Valera and Aleeya Grigsby (Texas-Pan American) and Julie Smith (Utah Valley).