Feb. 4, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Strong individual performances by Houston Baptist's Daniel Martinez and South Dakota's Emma Erickson earned them the Great West Conference Track & Field Athletes of the Week for the week ending Jan. 31, the conference office announced on Thursday.

Martinez, a senior from Kyle, Texas, won the 3,000-meter run at the University of Houston Indoor Invitational with a personal-best 8:29.42, the fastest time in the conference this year. Martinez, who also helped the HBU distance medley relay to a fourth-place finish Friday, raced in the middle of the lead pack for the first 2,000 before starting to move up, taking the lead with 400 to go as he clocked a conference-leading mark.

Erickson defeated a very strong field by over seven seconds en route to capturing the 800-meter run in a time of 2:11.2 at the Wisconsin Elite Invitational last Saturday in Madison, Wisc. The impressive performance continued the fast start for the sophomore from Gayville, S.D., as she has finished in the top three in all five individual races so far while winning three times.

Other athletes nominated for this week's honors were Chicago State's Jamal Ephraim and Amber White, Houston Baptist's Cindee Wright, NJIT's Josh Dolisca and Seattle's Nicholas Alvarado and Sarah Bolce.

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