Royals Athletes Lead SFU to 12th at NCAA DII Championships

Birmingham, Alabama—March 7-9—Valley Royal athletes Helen Crofts and Chantel  Desch were instrumental in guiding the Simon Fraser University Clan to a 12 th place finish in that school’s first appearance at the Division 2 NCAA Championships.

Crofts was the big point scorer for the Clan as the fifth year student won the 800 meters and teamed up with Desch, Sarah Sawatzky and Michaela Kane to place third in the distance medley relay. The two Valley Royal athletes were also members of the Clan team that placed eighth in the 4x400m relay.

Crofts won the 800-meters in the excellent time of 2:05.96 just missing the meet record of 2:05.75 but her time did break the facility record of 2:06.41. Desch recorded a personal best 55.48 for her 400-meter leg of the distance medley relay while Crofts ran the 1600-meter anchor leg of that event in 4:47.53.

Crofts made the following comments concerning her 800-meter victory, “I had an inside lane placement and didn’t want to get boxed in. I was a bit concerned because I was a little sore from the previous night’s relay but once we got going I felt great.”

The clan scored 22 pts in the competition to place 12th in the field of 50 schools that scored that took part in the championship. The placing meant that only one other school in their conference outscored SFU with Alaska Anchorage garnering 23 points.