Monday, January 31, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – Simon Fraser track and field had a weekend to remember at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, Massachusetts, going toe-to-toe with both Division I competition and the GNAC and Division II record books.

By the end of the meet, Simon Fraser had set two GNAC records, four GNAC All-Time Top 10 marks, 10 NCAA Championships provisional qualifying marks and three top-two times in Division II history. That extensive list of accomplishments has earned SFU another achievement – the GNAC Team of the Week award.

“I believe we will qualify more athletes for this indoor nationals than we have ever before, and we’ve had only two competitions so far,” head coach Brit Townsend said. “They know that our opportunities are limited and they are absolutely making the most of it. I am so proud of their work ethic and the way they are approaching these competitions.”

GNAC Track Athlete of the Week Aaron Ahl had a central role in SFU’s exceptional performance. The junior broke the GNAC record in the men’s mile with a time of 3:57.95, which is the second-fastest time in Division II history and the fastest since 1986. Ahl is the second-ever GNAC athlete to break the four-minute mile barrier alongside the previous record-holder David Ribich of Western Oregon, who ran a 3:58.88 in 2018.

Ahl also ran the 1,600-meter anchor leg in the Simon Fraser men’s distance medley relay alongside freshmen Ephrem Mekonnen, Callum Robinson and Aidan Good. They crossed the line in 9:38.04, which topped Western Oregon’s GNAC and Division II all-time record from 2017 by over two seconds. Simon Fraser now has the second-fastest time in Division II history after they were narrowly beaten to the line by American International, who set the new all-time mark in the same race.

The women’s relays were on fire as well. In the women’s distance medley relay, the foursome of Megan Roxby, Emily Lindsay, Emily Chilton and Allison Andrews-Paul ran a time of 11:36.75, winning the race by nearly eight seconds. That time is also the fastest across Division II this season. Chilton and Andrews-Paul then joined forces with Erika Binder and Marie-Éloïse Leclair on the 4x400 relay, which clocked in at 3:46.38, which ranks No. 4 across Division II this season and No. 6 on the GNAC All-Time List.

Andrews-Paul capped her weekend with an extraordinary individual performance in the 1,000 meters, running a blistering 2:44.54. Andrews-Paul lost the race by five one-thousandths of a second to a Division I runner, Boston College’s Katherine Mitchell, but her time was still the second-fastest in Division II history.

Several other SFU athletes earned NCAA Championships provisional qualifying marks. Leclair turned in the ninth-fastest time in GNAC history in the 200 meters with a time of 24.82 seconds. Other athletes qualifying for NCAAs included Roxby in the women’s mile (4:57.67), Olivia Willett in the women’s 3,000 meters (9:50.83), Henry Ruckman-Utting in the men’s mile (4:10.99), Scott Arndt in the men’s 3000 meters (8:12.90), Good in the men’s 800 meters (1:52.39) and Robinson in the men’s 200 meters (21.64).

Simon Fraser is slated to chase more records and provisional marks at the Whitworth Invitational on February 12, which will be held at The Podium in Spokane, also the site of this year’s GNAC Championships.