Wednesday, June 12, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore.  –   Simon Fraser University track and field athlete Helen Crofts has been voted the 2012-13 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Crofts (Sr., West Vancouver, BC), along with male winner David Downs of Seattle Pacific, will now be a candidate for the 2013 Conference Commissioners Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which will be selected this summer.

Crofts received seven of 10 first-place votes in the balloting by the conference’s athletic directors. 

She had a spectacular career not only on the track, but also in the classroom at Simon Fraser, compiling a near-perfect 4.14 GPA in the Canadian system that awards 4.33 points for an A+ (as opposed to the U.S. system which awards a maximum of 4.00).

A biological science major with a concentration in Cells, Molecules and Physiology, Crofts compiled the highest GPA at SFU in earning the Bill DeVries Award for excellence in academics and athletics.

She accomplished all that academically while also winning two national titles and four All-American awards during the 2013 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor national championships. 

In the indoor meet in March in Birmingham, Ala., she won the 800 meters in a meet-record time of 2:05.96 and also led SFU to a third-place finish in the distance medley relay (11:37.62) and an eighth-place finish in the 4x400 relay (3:47.14). 

She completed a sweep of the 800-meter titles in the outdoor meet in May at Pueblo, Colo., finishing first in a time of 2:08.18.

A week prior to the outdoor national meet, she finished ninth in the USA Track & Field High Performance Distance Classic at Occidental.  Her time of 2:02.10 was not only a GNAC record but also was the third fastest time by a collegiate athlete this spring at all levels.

Crofts was selected the GNAC Indoor Athlete of the Year. She won the 800-meter title at the conference meet (2:12.29) and led the Clan to wins in both relays in times of 3:48.36 and 11:47.86.

In the outdoor conference meet, she swept the 400 and 1500-meter titles, winning the 400 in a meet-record time of 54.46 and the 1500 in a time of 4:26.85.  

Crofts, who was also named the USTFCCCA West Region Athlete of the Year, also led the Clan to a second-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 3:46.04.