By Adam Ovenell-Carter

At this point, you’d have to be trying to ignore the SFU track and field team to be unaware of how well they’re performing this season.

The Clan were in Seattle last weekend competing in the University of Washington Invitational Indoor Invitational, and performed admirably — though so much is almost to be expected at this point. However, the competition in this event was much stiffer than much of what the Clan have faced this season, as many NCAA Division I schools were competing as well.

On the first day of competition, both the men’s and women’s distance medley relay teams finished well enough to earn a berth in the GNAC championships later this month.

On the men’s side, the combination of Adam Reid, Stuart Ellenwood, Ryan Brockerville, and Keir Forster ran their way into second place in the event. The women’s team of Michaela Kane, Sarah Sawatzky, Lindsey Butterworth, and Abbey Vogt finished sixth on their side of the event. Many of these runners had already earned spots in the championship in different events, but the two sides solidified SFU’s already notable presence in the presence.

Butterworth, Sawatzky, Kane, Forster, Brockerville, and Reid were also among the eight Clan runners to perform well enough on the events’ second day to earn one more race in the championships. Yubai Liu and Anton Hemeniuk will join those six as their performances in the 800-metre and 3000-metre events, respectively, were good enough to qualify as well.

Needless to say, the Clan will have their presence felt when the championships eventually roll around, and if you’re not paying attention yet, it’s about time you were.

By Adam Ovenell-Carter

It hasn’t been an easy season for the SFU men’s basketball team, and that’s putting it lightly.

The season was almost derailed before it even got going — the number of freakish injuries suffered by key players was, well, freakish. From cysts on the brain to torn knees, the Clan were behind the eightball from the get-go.

Despite all the pre-season adversity, the Clan opened the season strong, winning four of their first six games. That total alone actually surpassed their record from their inaugural GNAC season. Newcomers Javari Williams and Matt Ravio were quickly winning over the hearts of the fans with their chemistry and flash (particularly in the case of Williams), but that’s about when the good times stopped rolling.

Even more injuries befell upon the Clan — most recently a significant knee injury to forward Ibrahim Appiah, one of the team’s top rebounders — and the Clan have since gone 3–12 since November, with only two of those wins coming against GNAC opponents. The proverbial dagger to the heart has not been injuries, however. A number of Clan athletes — only a small handful, but still more than one would ever hope — have been forced to watch from the sidelines as a result of poor academic performance. The academic ineligibles, out for the remainder of the season, left their team with only eight players to start the new year — but that was before Appiah went down with his own injury.

With only seven available players at the moment, the team is having a tough time refraining from losing their breath, let alone games.

That’s not to say that the team hasn’t been competitive, however. The team has lost more than a fair share of blowout losses, but there have been a few defeats that sting more than most. In mid-December, when the team was mostly intact, the Clan lost a heartbreaker to the Academy of Art Universtiy, 84–83. And when the New Year rolled around, the Clan lost another one-point game, 74–73, when a last-second three-point attempt didn’t go against Western Oregon. A win on that January 5 game would’ve meant more than just a notch in the W column, as a win against the then-top-ranked team in the GNAC would’ve been a huge emotional boost.

News out of the men’s team could be more positive in the coming days, however. The Clan did defeat St. Martin’s University on Thursday. On a night where their female counterparts nearly doubled up on the Saints, the men’s side played, and won,
an incredibly close game against SMU. The Clan lead by just one at half time, and parlayed that into a 88–85 victory for only their second GNAC win of the year. Moreover, the Clan face the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday. The Nanooks are the only other in-conference team the Clan have beat; they won that game on the road, but the rematch is in the cozy confines of SFU’s West Gym.

No matter how few players they dress, the Clan refuse to make excuses, and hopefully that mentality has started to turn the season back in the right direction.

By Adam Ovenell-Carter

Sometimes, there are games a team just shouldn’t win. Other times, there are games the team should just run away with. For the Clan, their Thursday evening game against the St. Martin’s Saints was definitely the latter. The Clan were fighting for third place in the GNAC, while the Saints were floundering at just 2–9 on the season. But as we learned last week, there’s a reason the teams actually play the games.

The Clan lost a very winnable game to Western Washington last Saturday, and the 70–61 defeat was the Clan’s first home loss of the season. A win against the Vikings would’ve propelled SFU into the second seed in the GNAC standings, and in the current playoff format, the conference’s top two teams earn first round byes. The loss, however, dropped the Clan into the fifth spot and to the edges of playoff contention. With that in mind, the Clan weren’t taking anything for granted against St. Martin’s.

“We had a huge sour taste in our mouths,” said sophomore Chelsea Reist of their loss to Western Washington. Thursday’s game against St. Martin’s was much sweeter.

The Clan came out flying early, and Reist led the charge, starting the game hitting all of her first six shots. She in particular seemed to take the Western Washington loss personally.

“I sure did,” she laughed. “We didn’t play at all like we should have, not at all like our potential. Before [this] game we talked about it, how we needed to come out and win this
one for everyone to believe in us again.”

The game was over early, and the eventual 79–48 victory will go a long way to restoring that confidence.

Reist was a force inside early, and gave the Clan an early lead that they would not give up for the duration of the game. Between her and fellow 6-foot-2 forward Nay Raincock-Ekunwe, the Clan put together an attack that the Saints had no answer to. Reist scored most of her points early, while Raincock-Ekunwe steadily built her way to a double-double — something becoming almost commonplace with her — finishing with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

“It was awesome today,” said Reist of they play of Raincock-Ekunwe and herself inside. “That’s probably the best we’ve been . . . I’d really like to keep that going.”

Understandable. The duo’s down-low prowess opened up the deep ball for ace Kristina Collins, who scored all 12 of her points from beyond the arc. Add the Clan’s ridiculously deep bench, and SFU easily disposed of struggling St. Martin’s — just as it should’ve been. In a playoff race as tight as theirs, every game matters, and no games can be taken for granted.

Alaska Anchorage is comfortably in first place, but the three teams directly in front of the Clan all won on Thursday as well. Western Washington sits in second at 8–3, while the Clan, still in fifth, improved to 7–4 with the victory. Needless to say, it’s a close race.

“Everything’s so tight,” said second-year guard Marie-Line Petit. “We could’ve been second, but we dropped a couple games we shouldn’t have, and now we’re in fifth. Each game can hurt us bad if we lose it.”

Only six teams make the playoffs, and the Clan only one spot away from that dividing line. That said, they’re still just one win away from second place and that valuable bye. With their confidence restored and knowing they can take nothing for granted, the Clan could be back on their way up the standings.

By Adam Ovenell-Carter

The Peak recently published an article saying Vancouver Canucks centre Cody Hodgson needed to step up. Apparently he reads our newspaper.

The 21-year-old rookie has had a sensational start to the new year, and has not only solidified his spot on the team, but has locked down the third-line centre role as well. He recorded 10 points in the month of January — six of them goals — and has vaulted himself into serious Calder Trophy talks as the league’s best freshman.

It did help that Edmonton’s young phenom Ryan Nugent-Hopkins missed significant time with an injury, but don’t let that take anything away from Hodgson’s play of late. His 14 goals are, at this moment, second among all rookies, while his 30 points are good for fourth, only five behind  Nugent-Hopkins’ 35. And even though the Oilers’ star missed a number of games, he still has played far more minutes than Hodgson has this season.

Admittedly, Hodgson has had much more professional experience than Nugent-Hopkins and other top rookies, and that has no doubt helped his play. But frankly, he’s still rather fortunate to be in this position. A serious back injury threatened to derail his career before it ever really got going. Then, a freak jaw injury while playing with the Canucks AHL afilliate, then the Manitoba Moose, took the young centre back out of the lineup barely after returning. Of course, being the 10th overall pick in any draft comes with serious expectation — and with a fan base as fickle and demanding as Vancouver’s, Hodgson’s slowed development left the city wanting more, if not a trade.

Needless to say, he’s finally starting to tap into all that potential, and those trade rumours have died down significantly over the past month. His January efforts earned him Rookie of the Month honours, while his play this season earned him a selection as one of the rookies invited to the NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa.

Hockey fans on the west coast like to complain about the lack of attention the Canucks get, but it seems as though Vancouver fans and the rest of the league are starting to notice Hodgson at the same time. To his credit, he has been putting on quite a show.

He hasn’t ‘stolen’ anyone’s job, as many have suggested, for Manny Malhotra and Maxim Lapierre still have their own distinct roles on the team. Hodgson has just been playing fantastic hockey. As the third centreman behind Art Ross-winning Henrik Sedin and Selke-winning Ryan Kesler, he’s not likely to get top-flight minutes like those two, or even the likes of Nugent-Hopkins. You’ll never hear him complain about his ice time (or lack thereof). Instead, you’ll see him make the most of every chance he gets, quietly and efficiently, like he’s been doing for a while now.

The Calder Trophy would be nice, and Hodgson has openly admitted that. If he continues at the pace he established in January, then the award is not far-fetched. On a team like the Oilers, he’d likely be getting first-line minutes and likely be potting a few more points, but it goes without saying that if a smaller role on this team now earns the Canucks a much bigger piece of hardware later, Cody Hodgson would gladly go without the Calder. In the meantime, however, enjoy the ride aboard the number-nine train; it’s only getting better.