ST. JOHN, NB -- Matthew Beaudet of the McGill University men's track and field team has won the U SPORTS rookie-of-the-year award in track. The announcement was made on Thursday, during the opening round of the national championships. a three day meet hosted by the University of New Brunswick.

Last fall, the 5-foot-9, 145-pound distance runner from the NDG borough of Montreal was also the recipient of the nation's top rookie honour in cross-country. This marks the third time in U SPORTS history, since the award was initiated in 1997, that a male athlete has won the top freshman laureates in separate sports, a feat previously accomplished in track and cross-country by Sherbrooke's Alex Genest in 2006-07 and  Alberta's Rob Nissen in 2001-02. The rarity has also happened three times on the women's side.

Beaudet, a 22-year-old electrical engineering sophomore in his first year of university competition, had been nominated for the national honours after being named last month as the top rookie in the RSEQ track season. He merited first team all-star status and earned the conference's performance-of-the-year award for posting a converted time of 3:40.24 in the 1500m from a mile-long race at the Boston University Last Chance Meet on Feb. 27.  
 
At the league championship meet in Sherbrooke last month, he struck gold, twice, winning the 1500m (3:52.01) and the 3000m (8:20.44). His time in the 1500m was one-hundredth of a second off the school record (3:52.00) set in 1997 and his result in the 3000m was less than two seconds shy of the team mark. He was also within striking distance of another school record at the McGill Redbird Last Chance meet, where he ran the 1000m in 2:26.70, just shy of the 2:25.51 standard set in 2016.