CAPILANO Rugby Club's Andrea Burk was named the Canadian Direct Insurance Women's Player of the Year by the British Columbia Rugby Union at a ceremony held last month in Vancouver.
The Carson Graham grad led the B.C. Premier Women's Adidas Premiership in scoring, putting up 90 of Capilano's 232 total points and registering a league-best 11 tries. The team finished third in the regular season and made it to the provincial semifinals in the playoffs.
Burk continued to shine in the summer months, finishing second in scoring at the National Women's League Finals as she helped the B.C. provincial team to a thirdplace finish.
Burk took one more step up in August, suiting up for three games with the Canadian national team during the 2011 Nations Cup.
"Andrea is a great player who brings incredible energy to everything she does," said fellow Capilano and B.C. provincial team member Hilary Leith in a BCRU release. "She is a leader on and off the field and someone to look up to."
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North Vancouver speedster Jessica Smith was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's athlete of the week for cross-country running after helping Simon Fraser University to a firstplace finish at the Concordia Adidas Cross Country Classic held Oct. 15 in Portland.
Smith, racing in field that included 116 runners, finished second in the 5,000-metre race in a time of 17: 27. It was the second time that the SFU senior earned athlete of the week honours this season.
"The course was very challenging," said SFU head coach Brit Townsend in a release. "It was soft, with a lot of hills and a lot of turns. Jessica ran a great race and had an excellent result. She does a great job keeping herself in shape and seems to get stronger every time out."
The Argyle grad has won multiple championships while competing in cross-country running and track and field at SFU.
The GNAC championships were scheduled to take place Oct. 22 in Yakima, Wash.
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