It was a busy couple of days for the men and women of SFU’s track and field team during the Indoor Championships, February 21–22 in Nampa, ID.
The weekend produced a good share of firsts for the Clan organization, as the team achieved their collective goal of a third place finish amongst the rankings of other competing institutions, their best ever at an indoor event. In total, the women’s team finished with an outstanding 104 points and the men with 95 to lift the team to new heights.
At an individual level, many talents shone brightly for SFU. The outstanding weekend was highlighted by the massive accomplishments of senior Lindsey Butterworth, who picked up three Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) titles for the 800 metre, distance medley relay and mile events. The North Vancouver native was named the Female Performer of the Meet for her efforts.
“This past weekend was amazing, the team really came together and everyone competed at their best to come out with the best team finish SFU has ever had,” said Butterworth. “Everyone was so supportive the entire meet which made the atmosphere and experience so much better. It feels great to be able to finish my last indoor conference meet with not only individual success, but team success as well.”
Senior Cameron Proceviat’s also earned his first-ever career GNAC title in the Men’s 800 metre event. Proceviat proved to be a key teammate in the men’s distance medley relay and 4×400 metre relays as well, where he won two additional titles.
Day two of the meet also saw a stunning result come for graduate student Jennifer Johnson, who set a new record to earn an individual title in the women’s 3,000 metre event — this was her second of the championships after winning alongside Butterworth in the distance medley relay.
Track and field head coach Brit Townsend was thrilled with the recent string of performances by her team, and says the athletes raised the bar for their future endeavors.
“We’ve added some significant people to the team that are competitive at this level, and as soon as you do that it brings the level of performance up of everybody,” Townsend told The Peak. “Now there’s a new expectation of what we need to do for things to qualify and for what is possible.”
The weekend will be remembered for its strength of team spirit, fuelled both in athlete numbers and in enthusiasm.
“It was a great team event,” added Townsend. “We had 50 athletes there and that’s the most we’ve ever brought. So that makes the team spirit a lot stronger with people cheering and supporting everybody that was competing.”
Coach Townsend remains encouraged for what the season has in store and on the new possibilities with more athletes possibly competing at the Nationals. Only time will tell on how much more this organization can achieve.
