SFU’s track and field team came out victorious in the Achilles Cup on March 25. The yearly event is held between SFU and UBC, and was the first outdoor meet for the Clan this season. SFU came out victorious on both the male and female side, increasing their lead in the overall series to 8–5–1.
“I’m really happy with the meet,” said Head Coach Brit Townsend. “We were uncertain going in.
“We don’t have a lot in the field events right now, so it ended up that we were way ahead [with] the women, and the men came down to the last couple of events. So it was pretty exciting.”
This marked the first outdoor meet for the team this year, a big adjustment from the previous indoor meets.
“We’re just coming off of a competitive season indoors, and we didn’t have much of a break,” said Townsend. “The kids who went to nationals didn’t have much of a break had less than two weeks, while other ones that just ran at the conference had five weeks.
“Outdoors is tough. There’s even more schools vying for those top spots [. . .] Outdoors, we end of having to travel quite a bit and it’s right through exams so that’s stressful. We start a couple of weeks later than most schools in the NCAA Division II, partly because of travel costs and partly because of school. They need some time to get through their exams.”
Standout performers in the meet include Cameron Proceviat, who finished second in both the 800 and 1,500 metre run, and Dylan Freinhofer and Marc-Antoine Rouleau, who finished first in the 800 and 1,500, respectively. On the women’s side, Valda Kabia won the 200 meter, and Addy Townsend finished second in the 1,500 meter.
Looking forward, Townsend expects to see a number of familiar names competing from indoors to repeat the same success outdoors, as well as some of the more competitive events.
“We’re looking at the same people who went to indoor nationals to repeat,” said Townsend. “We have Marc Antoine [and] Cam Proceviat. [. . .] On the women’s side we’ll have the same people repeat, and hopefully add one or two more.
“It is more difficult to make the national championships. We don’t have the distance medley relay, so those people now have to try and make it as an individual which is a lot harder. We may not have the same numbers, but we hopefully will have the same amount of individual events.”
