MONTREAL –
Matthew Beaudet, from McGill University, has been named as the men's cross-country rookie of the year in Canada. The announcement was formally made on Monday by U SPORTS, the national governing body for university sports.
Beaudet, a 21-year-old electrical engineering sophomore in his first year of competition at the collegiate level, becomes only the second McGill recipient of this award and the first since
Jeremy Briand in 2015.
It was a solid fall semester for Beaudet, a 5-foot-9, 145-pound distance runner from Montreal, who earned All-Canadian first team status.
He opened the season with a sixth-place finish of 105 runners at the six-kilometre Redbird Classic (Sept.18), posting a time of 18:11. In his second meet, he placed first of 85 entries at the 8k Sherbrooke Invitational (Oct. 10) crossing the finish line in 24:53.
At the RSEQ championship, an 8k race in Quebec City on Oct. 30, he became the first McGill runner in 16 years to capture the men's individual title, finishing first of 94 runners in 24:37 on the Plains of Abraham. Beaudet capped his campaign at the Nationals in Quebec City last weekend, where he finished seventh of 130 entrants overall, crossing the finish line of the 8k race in 24:47.
Among the other major cross-country awards announced
, Lauren McNeil of UBC-Okanagan, took home rookie of the year honours on the women's side,
Mitchell Ubene of the Guelph Gryphons and
Jessy Lacourse from the Laval Rouge et Or, were recognized as the male and female athletes of the year, respectively.
The Community Serivce Student-Athlete Awards went to Calgary's
Eric Lutz and Guelph's
Kiana Gibson.
Finally,
Félix-Antoine Lapointe, who led Laval to a stunning sweep of both the men's and women's national championships, received the Fox 40 coach-of-the-year award for both categories.
Past Award Winners
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Off.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
