By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – It had been six years since a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women’s track & field team earned a top-10 finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships, until Simon Fraser achieved that feat when Saturday’s championship meet wrapped up in Indianapolis.
 
The Red Leafs racked up 22 total points across a trio of dominant events, finishing in eighth place among a team leaderboard that featured 56 schools in all. It marks the second time since SFU joined NCAA Division II as a member of the GNAC in 2010 that it has finished in the top-10 as a team at the national meet, with the other being a seventh-place finish in 2014
 
The last time a GNAC school picked up a top-10 NCAA national finish was in 2019 when Alaska Anchorage placed fourth. Overall a GNAC women’s team has finished in the top-10 on 11 occasions since the conference was founded in 2001-02. Central Washington totaled 19 points to finish ninth in the team standings this season, marking the second time in league history the league has had two schools finish in the top-10 in the same year.
 

NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships – Women’s Team Top-10 Finishes (GNAC History)
School	Year	Team Finish	Points
Simon Fraser	2025	8	22
Central Washington	2025	9	19
Alaska Anchorage	2019	4	34
Alaska Anchorage	2016	9	20.5
Simon Fraser	2014	7	24
Seattle Pacific	2010	7	26
Seattle Pacific	2009	6	35
Western Washington	2009	9	20
Seattle Pacific	2008	9	33
Seattle Pacific	2007	7	20
Seattle Pacific	2005	8	25

 SFU’s team success was sparked by just a quartet of athletes, who combined for seven first-team All-America performances over the weekend.
 
Headlining the list was Olympian Marie-Eloise Leclair, who brought home All-America in the 60 meters, 200 meters and within the team’s 4x400 meter relay. Leclair raced her way to her third-straight podium spot in the 60 meters, finishing fourth with a time of 7.42 seconds in the finals on Saturday. She became the conference’s highest-ever national finisher in the event last year when she took third, after notching a seventh-place finish as a sophomore in 2023.
 
Leclair followed with a third-place finish in the 200 meters, racing to a time of 23.67 seconds in the finals. The Red Leaf senior also picked up her third All-America honor in that event, after finishing as the national runner-up last season and taking fifth place as a sophomore in 2023. Leclair’s finishes in the two individual events secured 11 total points as she accounted for half of the team’s total in the meet.
 
Junior Emma Cannan, who ran the second-fastest 200 meters time in GNAC indoor history earlier this year, replicated the feat with a PR of 23.73 seconds in the prelims and a mark of 23.81 seconds in the finals to take fourth place. Her first-ever All-America nod earned her team five points, as she clocked in close behind her teammate Leclair.
 
Combining the aforementioned duo with seniors Claire Bosma and Elizabeth Vanderput, the SFU 4x400 meter relay squad made history on the national stage. The Red Leafs broke their own GNAC indoor record in the event with a time of 3:37.95 minutes, racing their way to a third-place finish to grab six more points towards the team score. The tightly contested final saw Vanderput and Bosma keep pace with the leaders across the first two legs of the relay, before Cannan made up some ground and handed off to Leclair with around two seconds to make up. The anchor put on a strong final-lap push and nearly tracked down national champion Lincoln and runner-up Findlay, who each finished with a time of 3:37.30 – just 0.65 seconds ahead of SFU.
 
It was the seventh women’s 4x400 squad in GNAC history to finish in the top-eight at the national meet, and the first to do so since the 2022 SFU squad placed fourth. Leclair was the lone returner from the latest All-American relay unit, which she competed on during her debut season with the Red Leafs. The third-place finish also tied for the highest ever by a GNAC women’s 4x400 unit, as SFU joined 2016 third-place finisher Seattle Pacific.
 
Leclair upped her career All-American count to eight awards at the indoor championships, tying for the most in GNAC history. With six individual All-America finishes and two more coming as part of relay teams, Leclair matched Seattle Pacific’s Jessica Pixler for the most in conference history. Leclair’s six individual All-America finishes are the most-ever by a GNAC women’s competitor.
 

Most Women’s Indoor All-American Awards – GNAC History
Name	School	Total	Individual	Relays
Jessica Pixler	Seattle Pacific	8	5	3
Marie-Eloise Leclair	Simon Fraser	8	6	2
Jane Larson	Seattle Pacific	6	4	2
Karolin Anders	Alaska Anchorage	5	5	0
Addy Townsend	Simon Fraser	5	2	3

 
Upon the completion of her indoor career, Leclair held the conference’s all-time records in the 200 meters (23.39 seconds), 400 meters (53.82 seconds) and on the 4x400 meter relay (3:37.95 minutes). Her indoor personal best of 7.30 seconds ranked second in conference history, just 0.01 seconds off the league record. She joined Alaska Anchorage’s Caroline Kurgat, who holds the indoor 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters and distance medley relay conference records, as the only other athlete since the GNAC was formed to have her name on three separate records.
 
SFU’s program is piloted by Olympian Brit Townsend, who is in her third decade in charge of the Red Leafs. In addition to twice leading SFU to top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, she earned the squad the 2005 NAIA women’s outdoor track & field national title and helped the team to a runner-up finish at the 2011 indoor meet during the provisional phase of its NCAA membership transition.