The men’s distance medley relay team of Pierre-Louis Detourbe, Rowan Doherty, Nate St. Germain and Carlos Vargas delivered a new school record en route to a win at the Seattle Pacific University Final Qualifier on Saturday.
The quartet, which began the event ranked 18th in Div. 2, completed the race in 9:49.47, three seconds quicker than the old SFU mark set three years ago by Burnaby native Cameron Proceviat, Joel Webster, Marc-Antoine Rouleau and Vargas.
The new mark sits as the seventh fastest in the NCAA this season, giving them likely enough to earn an invite to the NCAA Indoor championships next month.
SFU’s women’s 4x400-metre relay of Bryce West, Sophie Dodd, Addy Townsend and Renate Bluschke captured their event with a time of 3:48.43, just 5-100ths of a second slower than their season-best time from Feb. 2.
In the women’s 800m, Dodd notched an indoor personal best with a finish of 2:10.99, holding her 14th spot in the event this season.
Also securing PBs at the meet were Richard Torres, in the men’s 800m (1:54.90), Thomas Gallagher in the mile (4:16.02), Emily Lindsay in the women’s 200m (25.73), Amy Morris in the 3000m (10.37.44), and Chelsea Ribeiro, who tied her best result in the 3000m (10.05.38). Meyer Quaynor finished with a season-best time of 7.73 in the 60m final.
“This indoor season has been fast and furious,” remarked SFU head coach Brit Townsend. “With limited opportunities, our athletes have stepped up and took advantage of every chance that was given to them. Our men's DMR team came down here this weekend for one purpose and that was to make nationals. They ran incredible with each one of them taking responsibility for their individual performance.”
SFU’s list of athletes with provisional standards (qualifying) results are: women, Addy Townsend (800m, mile); Sophie Dodd (800m); 4x400m (West, Dodd, Townsend, Bluschke); distance medley (Nock, Bluschke, Dodd, Townsend). Men, Aaron Ahl (mile); Pierre-Louis Detourbe (mile, 3000m); Rowan Doherty (mile, 3000m); Carlos Vargas (3000m); distance medley (Ahl, Detourbe, Doherty, Vargas).
The final confirmation of the NCAA Div. 2 invitees will be posted 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The championship meet will hit the track March 8 to 9 in Pittsburg, Kansas.
