By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Simon Fraser’s Emma Cannan became the first woman in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history to win an NCAA Division II national title in the 200 meters, as she sped her way to victory on Saturday at the Virginia Beach Sports Complex.
 
Entering the event as the favorite, Cannan blew away her own GNAC record in Friday’s preliminary round as she ran 23.12 seconds to advance to the finals. She took care of business in the second of two heats on Saturday, clocking in at 23.21 seconds to win the NCAA gold medal. She led her heat from start to finish, holding off national runner-up Grizell Scarlett of Central Missouri who ran 23.58 seconds.
 
It was the first-ever NCAA track & field title – indoor or outdoor – for a GNAC sprinter including women and men. Before Cannan’s performance Saturday, the conference never had a national champion in a distance shorter than 800 meters in its 25-year history. A reigning All-American in the event, Cannan took home fourth place in the 200-meters at last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships. Simon Fraser’s Marie-Eloise Leclair (second in 2024, third in 2025, fifth in 2023) and Alaska Anchorage’s Jamie Ashcroft (seventh in 2017) are the only other GNAC women to earn All-America in the indoor 200-meters.
 
For Simon Fraser, Cannan became the fourth track & field athlete since the university joined the NCAA in 2010 to win a Division II title. It was the fifth overall national gold medal by a Red Leaf, as Cannan joined Helen Crofts (2013, indoor 800 meters), Lindsey Butterworth (2015 indoor and outdoor 800 meters) and Alison Andrews-Paul (2022 indoor 800 meters). It was the 19th national title by a GNAC women’s indoor track & field athlete.
As a team, Simon Fraser led the GNAC with an eighth-place finish for the second straight season. The Red Leaf women accumulated 20 points to match their second-best women’s team indoor finish since joining the NCAA. The Central Washington women grabbed 14 points to claim a 15th-place finish while Western Washington tied for 29th with seven points. Simon Fraser was the lone GNAC men’s team to score at the meet, earning one point to tie for 52nd place. Pittsburg State swept the women’s and men’s team titles, with its men totaling 75.5 points for a 24.4-point margin over runner-up Grand Valley State. Things were closer on the women’s side, with the Gorillas scoring 69.5 points to fend off runner-up West Texas A&M by 10.5 points.
 
Cannan also secured All-American status in the women’s 60-meter dash, clocking a time of 7.36 seconds to finish in fourth place. That was just 0.03 seconds off her personal best of 7.33 seconds, as she became the fourth woman in conference history to earn All-America in that event. Converse’s Grace Davis won the national title with a time of 7.26 seconds. Cannan capped the meet with a heroic performance as the anchor leg of the Red Leaf’s 4x400-meter relay unit. Running a split of 51.62 seconds, she closed a significant gap and helped SFU finish second in its heat with a time of 3:44.50 minutes. The next-fastest split by any runner was 52.38 seconds. The Red Leafs finished in 10th place in the relay, with Jaeland Cummings, Raiya Matonovich and Charlotte Bosma joining Cannan.
 
Emy Ntekpere of Central Washington earned her second straight indoor All-America award in the women’s triple jump, finishing as the national runner-up on Saturday. Last year’s NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor national champion, Ntekpere saved her best jump for last on Saturday as she cleared 32-3.5 feet (12.89 meters) on her sixth attempt. That was good enough for the silver medal, with Embry-Riddle’s Mikaela Miles jumping 43-0.25 feet (13.11 meters) on her fifth leap to win the competition. Ntekpere became the first woman in GNAC history to earn multiple All-America honors in the indoor women’s triple jump. Simon Fraser’s Olivia Windbiel also competed in the event, finishing in ninth place with a personal-best leap of 40-2.25 feet (12.25 meters).
 
Western Washington’s Bec Bennett earned her second straight indoor All-America honor in the women’s 400-meters, placing eighth on Saturday. Bennett ran a time of 54.40 seconds, earning the league’s fourth All-America finish in the event and becoming the first-ever with multiple such honors in the 400 meters. Blessing Akintoye of West Texas A&M took home the national title with a time of 52.87 seconds.
 
Western Washington’s women’s 4x400-meter relay squad earned All-America honors with a seventh-place finish, as the Vikings closed the meet with a season-best time of 3:42.36 minutes for the second-fastest indoor time in GNAC history. The quartet of Bennett, Casie Kleine, Jayda Darroch and Kennedy Cook combined for just the eighth top-8 finish by a women’s 4x400-meter relay team in GNAC history. It was the second-best national finish by Western Washington, which placed fourth in the event at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships. UT Tyler claimed the national title, running 3:36.41 minutes on Saturday.
 
Emmy Kroontje ran a stellar 800-meters to finish in fifth place on Saturday and pick up her first-career indoor All-America honor. Kroontje posted a personal best for the second day in-a-row, clocking in at 2:08.38 minutes. She earned the conference’s 26th indoor All-America award in the event, and it was the best-ever finish by a Viking as she joined 2009 seventh-place finisher Rachael Johnson and 2024 eighth-place finisher Marian Ledesma. Lieke Hoogsteen of Adams State won a final-stretch footrace against Abigail Abugire of West Texas A&M to claim the national title with a time of 2:04.23 minutes.
 
Drew Klein of Central Washington and Anders Larsen of Alaska Anchorage finished up the men’s heptathlon competition on Saturday morning. Klein just missed an All-American spot, placing ninth with 5,235 points across the competition. Larsen finished in 14th place, totaling 4,982 points. Klein’s total was a career-best and it was the sixth-highest total in GNAC history. Fran Bonifacic of West Texas A&M won the heptathlon national title, racking up 5,611 points over the two-day event.
 
Klein had a strong showing in both the 60-meter hurdles as well as the pole vault to climb up the overall leaderboard. He ran 8.36 seconds in the hurdles for 893 points, as he was just 0.03 seconds off his personal best in that event. The Wildcat then took fourth in the pole vault as he cleared 15-7 feet (4.75 meters), earning 834 more points. He completed the heptathlon with a time of 2:54.06 minutes in the 1,000-meter run, which was good for seventh place and a final 724 points.
 
Larsen cleared a bar at 12-3.5 feet (3.75 meters) in the pole vault, finishing in 13th place. He posted a time of 8.54 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, taking 12th place for 851 points. In the final event of the heptathlon, Larsen finished in 12th place with a time of 2:57.37 minutes in the 1,000-meter run to pick up 690 more points.
 
Simon Fraser’s Colton Plummer represented the conference in the men’s 800-meters, finishing with a time of 1:50.21 minutes and earning All-America status with an eighth-place finish. It was the 12th top-eight finish at the national meet by a GNAC runner in the men’s 800-meters, and the second from Simon Fraser as Plummer joined 2016 sixth-place finisher Cameron Proceviat.
 
The Red Leaf men’s 4x400-meter relay squad broke the GNAC record in Saturday’s finals, running 3:11.27 minutes. That topped a mark of 3:11.38 minutes, run by Western Washington earlier this season. SFU’s unit was comprised of Tyson Carr, Plummer, Liam Barnes and Zachary Jeggo. Angelo State won the national title, with its quartet combining for a time of 3:07.22 minutes.
 
Western Washington sophomore Jessica Polkinghorn made her NCAA Championships debut on Saturday, finishing in 10th place in the women’s shot put. Polkinghorn’s top throw of the day landed at 48-0.5 feet (14.64 meters) as she narrowly missed a top-eight finish for a podium spot. Febe Wessels of Colorado State-Pueblo won the women’s shot put national title with a heave of 53-3.75 feet (16.25 meters) on her fifth attempt.