Monday, October 10, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Simon Fraser men have been flying this season and put together a perfect performance on Friday to sweep the San Francisco State Invitational. The Red Leafs’ 15-point score earned them GNAC Team of the Week honors.

Sophomore Charlie Dannatt led the way for the Red Leafs, taking the win and completing the 8,000 meter course in 24:42.7.  He was the class of the field, leading at the 2,000 meter, 4,000 meter and 6,000 meter marks on the way to victory while averaging 5:01 per mile.

Dannatt was seven seconds ahead of teammate Sebastian Brinkman after crossing the 6,000 meter mark virtually neck and neck, separated by just four-tenths of a second. Brinkmann held a consistent second place for SFU, staying within touching distance of Dannatt from beginning to end.

Scott Arndt rounded out the top three for Simon Fraser in third place with a time of 25:05.6. He was followed by Ephrem Mekkonen and Aiden Good in fourth and fifth with times of 25:11.9 and 25:13.4 to complete the scoring five. The five scoring runners for SFU were separated by just 33 seconds.

With last week’s team win, the Red Leafs have now won two of their three cross country meets this season, finishing second at the Western Washington Classic. Dannatt’s individual win is the first for SFU this season.

Simon Fraser cross country head coach Brit Townsend sees the results that the SFU men have been earning as a strong indicator of the team’s depth and strength.

“The whole purpose of these cross country races is to try and get our top five, seven and even 10 as close to the front guy as possible,” Townsend said. “Achieving this goal shows us that we have tremendous depth on our men’s team and they are stepping up and battling to win those positions.”

While pleased with the results last week, Townsend also is looking forward to further improvement to remain competitive down the stretch.

“The progression has been very good,” she said. “But we still have work to do to compete with the top teams Our next race will be the Pre-Nationals and it will be run on the NCAA championship course. Top teams from the region and across the country will be there, as will the entire conference, making this one of the most competitive races of the season next to nationals. It will be a very good test for us.”

The Seattle Pacific NCAA Division II Pre-Nationals will take place on Oct. 22 at the Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, Washington.