One of Earl Marriott Secondary’s top running talents is entering the family business – running at Simon Fraser University.
Dawson Ribeiro – one of the Semiahmoo Peninsula’s top young cross-country, steeplechase and distance runners – signed last week with SFU, alongside five other top recruits from across the country.
At the Burnaby Mountain campus, Ribeiro – who attended Semiahmoo and ran in Totems’ colours before moving to EMS this year – will join his older sister, Chelsea, who is currently a sophomore on the Clan’s track team.
“It’ll be nice to have someone there I can lean on, if I have to,” he said, “I’m a little nervous but I’m also really excited.”
Dawson Ribeiro – whose younger sister, Hayley, is in Grade 11 and also one of Earl Marriott’s top athletes – was one of the school’s top cross-country runners this past season, while SFU’s news release refers to him a “a force” in the 3,000-m.
At the 2016 Oregon Relays, Ribeiro set a personal-best mark in the 3,000 in a time of 8 minutes, 50.9 seconds.
At BC High School Cross-Country Championships in the all, the EMS senior placed sixth in the senior boys race.
As well, the six-foot-two runner was eighth in the 200-m steeplechase at last year’s BC High School Track and Field Championships, and also helped Team BC to second-place finish at 2016 Canadian National Cross-Country Championships.
“We have been watching Dawson over the last two years and his progress in the distances has been great,” said SFU head track coach Brit Townsend. “We hope in can follow in the footsteps of (SFU) alumnus Ryan Brockerville, who was an NAIA champion in the steeplechase who went on to compete for Canada at the World University Games twice.”
Scott Kent, Ribeiro’s coach at both EMS and with the Coastal Track Club, said he’s seen immense improvement in the younger runner in recent years.
“He has come a long way since Grade 10,” he told Peace Arch News. “He’s got a great future ahead of him. I coach all three (siblings) and it’s very exciting to see all three of them having success.”
Ribeiro, who plans to pursue a business degree while at SFU, said he’s excited at the prospect of competing at the NCAA Div. 2 level, but in the meantime, is set on leaving an impression at the high-school level when the track season begins in the spring.
“It’s a weight of my chest to have this (university) decision done with, but I still want to train just as hard, so that next year, I’m the same person they recruited,” he said.
The five other recruits announced alongside Ribeiro were Camryn Yuen (North Vancouver), Olivia Willett (Coquitlam), Liam Foster (Pitt Meadows), Jonathan Goodridge (St. John’s, Nfld.) and Zack Kuzyk (Maple Ridge).
Foster is also a Coastal Track Club member, and is Ribeiro’s frequent training partner.
When asked if he expected his younger sister to one day join him and his older sibling at SFU, Ribeiro joked that “it’s a bit too early to start recruiting her.”