Simon Fraser University track and field sensation Vladislav Tsygankov continued his rise up the NCAA running charts and Addy Townsend solidified her place among the top middle distance runners with their performances at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival and Stanford Invitational track and field meets on Saturday.
Tsygankov and Townsend were among five runners who cracked the Top 10 nationally, and Townsend did it in two events, capping a terrific opening weekend against NCAA competition.
Tsygankov, the Clan’s All-American long jumper who began racing the 400 metres during the indoor season, ran his first 400m hurdles race Saturday and won.
He ran the fastest time in Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) history and fourth fastest time in NCAA this season. He made the national provisional qualifying standard.
“It was an amazing run and what a surprise,” said Clan head coach Brit Townsend.
Tsygankov beat a stacked field in the race, finishing in front of Fernando Martinez of Boise
State, 51.48 to 51.75 to take first. Tsygankov also came second in the long jump at the Distance Carnival with a leap of 7.04 metres.
Townsend, who a few days earlier was voted the GNAC Indoor Female Athlete of the Year, continued her rise to national prominence after she turned in personal bests in two events at the Stanford Invitational and put her name on the top-10 list nationally in both the 1500 and 800m races.
She pulled away from the field in the final 200m to win her 800m heat in 2:08.39, taking three seconds off her previous best time. It places her sixth nationally.
Townsend wasn’t the only Clan athlete to come up big in the 800. Two spots behind Townsend in eighth place nationally was Alana Mussatto, who improved her personal best time by a full second to 2:08.79.
Rounding out the Top 10 nationally in the 800m was junior Paige Nock, who ranks 10th after running 2:09.17 in the race at SF State.
“They all had great runs for this early in the season and it’s the first time we have had three girls on the Top-10 list in the 800 so early in the season,” said coach Townsend.
The younger Townsend put her name on the 1500m Top-10 list on the Friday, after clipping five seconds off her personal best to finish in 4:28.36 in her first 1500m race of the season. Clan junior Julia Howley is ranked 11th on the 1,500m list after posting a personal best 4:30.89 in winning her heat at the Distance Carnival. Paige Nock (17th) and Miryam Bassett (19th) also made provisional standards and rank nationally.
SFU freshman phenom Diana Voloshin had a spectacular debut on Friday running the third fastest GNAC time in history in the 100m hurdles. Voloshin posted her first NCAA Div. 2 provisional qualifying time of the season, clocking 14.03 seconds in the 100m hurdles. She ranks 10th nationally.
Voloshin missed qualifying for indoor nationals by 1/100th of a second.
Friday's Distance Carnival also saw senior Chantel Desch set a new career best in the 400m, finishing second behind Timarya Baynard of San Francisco State. Desch sits seventh in NCAA with a provisional qualifying mark.
In the men’s 100m, Burnaby native and SFU freshman Nathan Mah established a new PB with a third-place finish time of 10.91 seconds..
