Portland, OR – Simon Fraser University athletes Lindsey Butterworth and Sango Niang have been named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Athletes of the Week for the week of January 12-18.
Butterworth, a senior from North Vancouver, BC took the early-season NCAA Division II national lead in the indoor mile, running a time of 4:44.80 at the University of Washington Indoor Preview on Saturday afternoon.
She is the first woman to earn the automatic qualifying standard in the event this season, and her time ranks second in GNAC history following only Seattle Pacific’s Jessica Pixler, who ran 4:32.88 in 2010.
Butterworth, who redshirted the 2014 season, stormed out of the gates in her season opener shaving 13.29 seconds of her previous career best of 4:58.09, a time she ran in 2013.
Niang, a senior from Paris, France, scored a career-high 46 points in the Clan’s loss to Central Washington.
The 46 points is the second highest single-game point total in both GNAC and SFU history, as Niang trails only Western Washington’s Ryan Diggs who scored 47 in 2006, and Clan Hall of Famer Mike Jackel who scored 47 in 1980 and 1981.
He also made 18 field goals in the contest, equaling the GNAC single-game record from 2002.
Between the weekend’s two games Niang scored 71 points, had 12 rebounds, 11 assists and four steals, while making 27 of 46 field goal attempts.
Northwest Nazarene’s Kevin Rima was a co-Athlete of the Week with Niang, scoring 47 points and 19 rebounds between the Crusader’s two games.
