Simon Fraser's Olivia Willett, pictured here at the NCAA Div. 2 West Region championships, closed out her collegiate career Saturday in the national championship race by making a statement about the size her heart. (Photo courtesy Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Original Rights Reserved)
Feature University Cross Country

SFU’s pure-guts harrier Olivia Willett collapses on course at NCAA XC nationals 300m shy of finish: “My brain was telling me to keep going but my legs were Jello”

The late, great U.S. middle distance runner Steve Prefontaine would likely have been smiling from above Saturday morning.And not because a talented collegian, in the final race of her NCAA cross-country career, had collapsed on the course at the national Div. 2 women’s championship race just 300 metres from the finish line.“To give anything less […]

Olivia Willett has helped elevate the Simon Fraser women's cross-country team to the No. 1-ranking in the West Region heading into Saturday's GNAC championship races at St. Martin's University in Lacey Washington. (Photo property of WWU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Cross Country

As Simon Fraser cross-country hits the post-season trail in full stride at GNACs championships, forecast calls for mud with a chance of gold!

BURNABY — When the Simon Fraser’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams take to the trails Saturday morning for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship races at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., one thing will be abundantly clear.Despite the atmospheric forecasts calling for rain, rain and more rain, an historic opportunity exists along the way […]

Olivia Willett (centre, 283) is both a returning senior and foundational leader on the NCAA's No. 11-ranked Div. 2 women's cross-country team, one set to return to the trails Friday in San Francisco. (Photo provided courtesy SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Cross Country

Simon Fraser cross-country 2021 returns Friday to its Happy Trails! Says coach Townsend: “Once you get back on the course, everything’s the same… you compete”

BURNABY — Happy Trails.It’s a song much too dated to register anything resembling a pulse from today’s generation of student-athletes.Yet as cross-country runners at every rank of the NCAA, including those competing at the Div. 2 level at Simon Fraser University, prepare for the mass resumption of their competitive racing schedules this weekend, they might […]

Simon Fraser could send as many as five steeplechase athletes to the NCAA Div. 2 national championships later this month. They are (left to right) Julia Howley, Chelsea Ribeiro, Olivia Willett, Aaron Ahl and Pierre Louis-Detourbe. (Photo by Brad McLeod property of SFU Athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Simon Fraser Clan senior Miryam Bassett (513) has been rock solid in leading her team to a top five national NCAA Div. 2 cross-country ranking. (Photo courtesy UW Sundodger Invitational)
Feature University Cross Country

SFU cross-country: Coach Brit loves her ‘local girls’ as Triple Crown of GNAC, region and national meets await

BURNABY — Simon Fraser has become one of the frontrunners in the world of NCAA Div. 2 women’s cross-country running. The question now, as the 2017 season enters its Triple Crown stretch drive of conference, region and national championship races?