PROVO, Utah-Tuesday, former Panguitch High multi-sport star athlete and BYU cross country/track star Whittni Orton was named as the winner of the Curtis Pugsley female athlete of the year award by the BYU athletics department.

The Pugsley award is the cross country/track team’s highest recognition an annually honors one athlete from Cougars’ respective men’s and women’s teams.

The award is named in honor of Pugsley, a  former conference champion decathlete for the Cougars, who passed away in 2013 following a battle with cancer.

During the 2018 indoor season, Orton was named as a first-team All-American during the 2018 indoor season after finishing 7th in the mile at the national championship meet.

She also won the mile championship at the Iowa State Classic in a time of 4:34.88.

During the outdoor season, she placed 19th in the the 1500-meter prelims at the NCAA Championship meet last June at Eugene, Ore.

Rory Linkletter won the men’s Pugsley athlete of the year award.