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 […]
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 […]
Clan cross-country captain Olivia Willett embraces team aspects of her sport as SFU junior harrier leads her team to NCAA West Regionals
BURNABY — Ask any collegiate cross-country runner about the most unique aspects of their sport, and they will talk with passion about the power of the pack, and how each individual’s best performance is first-and-foremost a way to raise the level of the entire team.“You want to run with your teammates, not against them,” says […]
UBC’s Nicola Symonds: Some 14 years and a stone’s throw later, gutsy ‘Birds harrier returns to her Calgary course and wins race of her life in CW final
VANCOUVER — Ask any devoted harrier to define their love of cross-country running, and many will tell you that on their best days, it’s an act which takes them back to being a kid at recess, running unbridled through their old school yard.Last Saturday, at the age of 22, UBC Thunderbirds’ senior Nicola Symonds had […]
A Sunday Read: TWU’s Joanna Williams confronts her mental health struggles and says “I think there is something so beautiful about feeling strong”
LANGLEY — She’d never had this feeling before.For the first seven seasons of her competitive running life, Joanna Williams had tried to justify the myriad reasons that she trained and she raced, yet in her deepest place, they had all rung hollow.But this new feeling? What was it? She’d never had this feeling before.Two Saturday mornings […]
PODCAST — The VL Pod is back, celebrating a big anniversary for Abby Panthers football, and a new cross-country season for the SFU Clan
Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back with episode No. 2 in our re-launch. This week, we open our show with a high school football theme, celebrating Saturday’s 35th anniversary of the Abbotsford Panthers’ 1984 B.C. championship win over the Notre Dame Jugglers. Paul Gill, Denis Kelly and Jalem Catlin are all a part of […]
The long & short of it! Clan tradition of track-to-trail excellence continues Saturday in NCAA national XC title race
BURNABY — When the Simon Fraser Clan hit the road to ‘Rep the Leaf’ as the only non-U.S. school in the entire NCAA, they’re so often sought out by curious rival coaches and student-athletes.
The Run for Redemption: Spurred by 2017’s crushing national title-race snub, SFU Clan men’s X-C hits its NCAA high-water mark
BURNABY — They are a pretty easy team to pull for. Like the late Terry Fox himself, they too are distance runners in training, making the rounds on many days in-and-around the athletic facilities which now bear his name and sit on the same part of the Burnaby Mountain campus that the iconic Canadian hero himself […]
Despite its NAIA stronghold, UBC cross-country sees the bigger picture in seeking switch to U Sports for 2018
VANCOUVER — Taken as a whole, from its efforts in the fall on the trails, to its spring-time results on the track, it’s a pretty safe bet to say that there has never been a more prolific period in the concurrent history of the UBC Thunderbirds cross-country, and track and field programs.
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?