Already off to a blazing start, the women’s cross country team picked up the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Team of the Week award following their performance at the Erik Anderson Invitational in Spokane, WA. The men’s and women’s sides had excellent weekends at the meet, racing top competition from three divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Led by captain Lindsey Butterworth, the Clan women finished first among all Division II competition, besting teams from the West Region and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) over the 5km course. They also finished second overall, beating Division I schools, Gonzaga and Washington State, and losing to only one other Division I program, Lipscomb University.
Butterworth was SFU’s top finisher with a fifth-place overall run, while fellow senior Kirsten Allen followed closely behind in seventh. They finished one-two in Division II competition, and Allen picked up GNAC Athlete of the Week honours. It was Allen’s second consecutive seventh-place finish. Butterworth won the same award the weekend before for her performance at the Sundodger Invitational, and will be looking to continue her dominant season at the top of the GNAC.
The women’s three other point scorers at the Erik Anderson were Kansas Mackenzie, a 2012 All-Regional racer, freshman Rebecca Bassett in her second-ever collegiate race, and track and field All-American Sarah Sawatzky. The competitors finished in 12th, 23rd and 24th respectively.
The Clan men’s team is continuing to improve in 2013 as well as they had another excellent showing at their second competition of the season finishing fourth out of all Division II competition.
Captain James Young, coming off a red-shirt season in 2012, led the team over the 6km course finishing seventh out of the Division II competitors. It was his first finish atop the Clan leaderboard this season, with sophomore Cameron Proceviat following closely behind. Proceviat was the Clan’s top racer at the season opener, and rounded out the top-ten in Spokane.
Stuart MacDonald, Austin Trapp and Oliver Jorgenson rounded out SFU’s top-five finishers to nab the fourth place team spot, crossing the finish line in 17th, 19th and 20th in Division II competition respectively.
The Clan will be looking to continue their strong performances in the upcoming weekends starting with the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, CA and two more open meets before turning their attention to the championship season.
After the GNAC qualifying meet SFU will aim to return to Spokane where the West Region and NCAA Division II championships will be held in early November. The women are already ranked second in the West Region and sixth nationally and will be looking to improve on those rankings as the season progresses while the men will look to keep the speed coming when the Clan travel to California.
