By placing nine in the top-20 across the women’s and men’s finishers at last week’s Ash Creek Invitational cross country meet, Simon Fraser University showed why the rankings are ready for a shake-up.
The No. 14-ranked SFU women’s team ran a perfect race and swept the top five positions at Ash Creek, while the men’s team took top honours with four runners amongst the top 10.
It was a double win for Simon Fraser in the opening race of the season, edging Alaska Anchorage in both races.
In the women’s competition, the Clan claimed the top five spots for a perfect score (15 pts). Leading the way was senior Julia Howley, who completed the 4.6-kilometre course in 16:24.6. Junior Addy Townsend (2nd, 16:38.5), freshman Olivia Willett (3rd, 16:49.7), senior Miryam Bassett (16:50.8) and junior Chelsea Ribeiro (5th, 16:53.7) rounded out the top five for SFU.
Howley, a St. John, Nfld. native, and Townsend broke away from the pack in the first 300 metres. They continued to distance themselves and the gap never changed.
“I’m very happy with the effort today, and even though it was in a shortened course to what we will run at the conference and regional championships, I wanted a tough competitive run from everyone,” said Clan head coach Brit Townsend, Addy’s mom.
On the men’s side, West Van junior Rowan Dockerty led the team the entire distance, only trailing Alaska Anchorage’s Felix Kemboi.
Kemboi completed the 6.2-km competition in 18:42.8, just three seconds ahead of Doherty.
In sixth spot was junior SFU’s Carlos Vargas (19:01.1), while junior Sean Miller (8th, 19:10.9) and senior Mateo De Dalmases (9th, 19:17.3) also posted top-10 times.
