The Simon Fraser University women’s and men’s track and field teams finished in fourth and ninth positions at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships in Nampa, Idaho on Saturday afternoon.

Maple Ridge’s Leah Regan placed 15th running the mile in 5:37:36.

Regan’s teammate, Lindsey Butterworth, won the event, and was SFU’s first individual champion of the meet, defending her mile title from last year’s championships. Butterworth was able to edge out her competitors thanks to a time of 4:58.09, almost nine seconds better than her 2012 championship time.

Kirsten Allen (London, Ont.) and Tanya Humeniuk (Vancouver) also raced in the event.

The Clan had two first place performances on the second day of the meet, including a win in the women’s 4x400-metre relay.

Helen Crofts (West Vancouver), Sarah Sawatzky (Chilliwack), Michaela Kane (Robert’s Creek) and Chantel Desch (Abbotsford) won the event in a time of 3:48.36.

The time was a new meet record, besting the Clan’s own record time from the 2011 championships.

Crofts would then earn another repeat victory for the Clan winning the 800-metre race in a time of 2:12.29. Crofts won that event in 2011 as well.

Her teammates Sawatzky and Kane would follow closely behind in second and fourth place in times of 2:13.14 and 2:13.79 respectively, narrowly missing the top three sweep.

Abbey Vogt (Burnaby) and Kayla Lennea (Mission) also raced in the event, placing 11th and 12th.

Andrea Abrams (Saskatoon) had another excellent race in the 60-metre hurdles finals, finishing in third place overall. Her time of 8:88 was another personal best performance and improved her national championship qualifying mark.

Desch had an impressive performance in her GNAC debut meet, finishing second in the 400-metres and fifth in the 200-metres. Her times of 57:23 and 25:62 were both her fastest career times.

In the field, freshman Kim Neville-Rutherford (Sidney, BC) placed fourth overall in the women’s high jump competition thanks to a jump of 1.61 metres and Jade Richardson (Nanaimo) threw 11.98 metres in the shot put to grab sixth place for the Clan.

On the men’s side Stuart Ellenwood (Langley) had the highest overall performance for the Clan, finishing fourth in the 400-metre event in a time of 50:23.

Cameron Proceviat (Burnaby) was able to finish in seventh place in the 800-metre for the men, in his indoor best time of 1:55.47.

His teammates Travis Vugteveen (Chilliwack) and Adam Reid (Bowen Island) also ran in the event.

In the men’s mile, Keir Forster (San Roman, Calif.), James Young (Surrey) and Brendon Wong (Surrey, BC) represented the Clan, narrowly missing the top eight positions.

Luca Molinari (Burnaby) was the only male field event athlete in action for SFU, and he was able to place ninth in the men’s weight throw event with a throw of 14.01 metres.

“This weekend was extremely successful for us, and we had a lot of athletes run personal best times,” said Head Coach Brit Townsend. “That is all we can ask for from our athletes, and the coaches and I are very happy.”

The Clan will now turn their focus to the NCAA National Championships that will be hosted in Birmingham, AL starting March 8.