Track and Field - W | 3/2/2016 10:06:00 AM

INDIANAPOLIS – Simon Fraser University is sending its largest team – and first-ever jumper and male sprinter -- to the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships next week.

Sophomore Vladislav Tsygankov is the Clan's first jumper ever selected to compete at nationals while junior Joel Webster is the first sprinter from the men's team to qualify for nationals. Middle distance runners Cameron Proceviat and Addy Townsend, and 3,000 metres runners Rebecca Bassett and Marc-Antoine Rouleau all were on the list of accepted entries into individual races that was released on Tuesday afternoon

The men's and women's distance medley relay teams and women's 4x400 metres relay team were also selected to compete adding senior Chantel Desch, sophomore Alana Mussatto, freshman Valda Kabia, sophomore Monique Lisek and freshman Carlos Vargas to the Clan's traveling roster.

The championships will be held March 11 and 12 in Pittsburg, Kansas at the Robert W. Plaster Center on Pittsburg State University's campus.

A total of 540 participants, 270 men and 270 women, will compete in the championships. Student-athletes qualified for the championships by reaching the automatic and provisional standards established for each event.

Of the 11 Clan athletes going, seven of them – Webster, Proceviat, Rouleau, Bassett, Townsend, Mussatto and Desch -- will be particularly busy both days of the meet, competing in two events each.

Prelims take place Friday evening along with finals for the distance medley relay and men's long jump. The 4x400 metres is the final event of the meet on Saturday.
 

Cameron Proceviat
It will be the first indoor championships for the two-time GNAC 800 metres champion Proceviat. The Clan senior is the No. 8 seed for the 800-metres preliminaries with his personal best time of 1:49.77, which he set last weekend at the SPU Final Qualifier. That was the second fastest time in GNAC history behind rival Badane Sultessa (WOU) who is also entered in the race at nationals and ranked No. 6. The top seed in the 800 carries a time of 1:49.07 and the top 10 seeds are separated by less than a second so it is anyone's race to win. Proceviat will also run the distance medley relay on Day 1 of the meet.



Vladislav Tsygankov

Tsygankov burst onto the scene as a freshman and immediately turned heads with his leaping ability. He barely missed qualifying for nationals last year and now enters the meet as the No. 15 ranked jumper with a mark of 7.38 metres. That mark is also the GNAC record. The top seed from TAMU-Kingsville has jumped 7.91 metres so Tsygankov will have some ground to make up. The men's long jump finals are Friday evening.


 

Joel Webster
The Clan's first sprinter at nationals will enter the meet as the No. 14 seed and GNAC record holder in the 400 metres. Webster repeated as GNAC champion in the 400 meters at the conference championships with a GNAC record of 47.80 seconds, surpassing the mark of 48.27 set by Simon Fraser's Andrew Boss in 2011. Webster, a junior, will also run the DMR.






Marc-Antoine Rouleau

The sophomore Rouleau is the No. 18 seed in the 3,000 prelims with the 8:11.17 that he ran at the Husky Preview in mid-January. Rouleau will also run the DMR.






 

DMR Relay - Carlos Vargas, Marc-Antoine Rouleau, Joel Webster, Cameron Proceviat
The final member of the Clan men's team is Carlos Vargas, who helped SFU post the ninth fastest time nationally in the distance medley relay. The Clan DMR team enters Friday's race with a seed time of 9:52.97, trailing top seed Colorado Mines by almost seven seconds.






Addy Townsend

Townsend is the No. 14 seed in Friday's 800 prelims with the 2:11.54 that she ran a personal best to upset favorite Lynelle Decker of Seattle Pacific to win the GNAC championship. Decker is the No. 4 seed, thanks to the personal-best 2:09.38 she ran at the Husky Classic on Jan. 30 in Seattle. Townsend in the only freshman ranked among the Top 20 runners in the race. SFU's Lindsey Butterworth won the event last year. Butterworth was the second Clan athlete to capture the indoor 800-metres title, joining former Clan runner Helen Crofts. Townsend will also run the distance medley on the first day. The 800 finals are set for the second day.



 

Rebecca Bassett
Junior All-American runner Rebecca Bassett will be back at the indoor nationals for the second straight year. She ranked 16th entering the 3,000 metres a year ago, placing ninth by running a personal best 9:41.68. Bassett enters this year race seeded 15th having run a PB of 9:40.31 at the Husky Indoor Preview in Januray. Bassett will also run the distance medley on the first day. Bassett finished 24th overall to earn All-American honours at the 2015 NCAA D2 National Cross Country Championships.










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DMR Relay - Alana Mussatto, Chantel Desch, Rebecca Bassett, Addy Townsend
Chantel Desch returns to nationals for the second straight year to run the DMR relay while Alana Mussatto will make her first appearance. Desch is the only returning member of the women's distance medley relay that place second at nationals in a GNAC-record time of 11:28.28. This year the Clan is the No. 9 seed with a qualifying time of 11:44.39. The top seed, Minnesota-Duluth, was clocked in 11:35.87. Mussatto and Desch







 

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4x400 Relay - Alana Mussatto, Chantel Desch, Valda Kabia, Monique Lisek
Valda Kabia and Monique Lisek will both be making their first appearances at nationals as part of the Clan's 4x400 metres relay team. The Clan is the GNAC record-holder and No. 9 seed for the event that will take place Saturday, trailing the qualifying time of top seed Johnson C. Smith Universioty 3:41.25 to 3:46.31. The Clan used a lightning fast anchor leg by Desch to win the 4x400-metres relay at the GNAC Championships.

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--@SFUClan--