The Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) announced their Track and Field season award winners Thursday morning prior to the start of the 2013 CIS indoor track and field championships.
 
Gryphon Yves Sikubwabo of Ottawa was named the CIS Male rookie of the year. Sikubwabo, a first-year arts student, gave a pair of seasoned veterans all they could handle last month in his first OUA championship appearance. He claimed silver in the 1000m behind reigning OUA MVP Anthony Romaniw, and on 1500m behind last year's CIS gold medallist, Matt Walters. He also ran the third leg of the gold-medal winning 4 x 800m relay to help the Gryphon men to their first-ever OUA team banner.
 
Sibukwabo is ranked first in the country on 1000m going into the CIS championships thanks to his time of 2:23.50 at the prestigious SPIRE Institute Invitational in Ohio in early February.
 
"You can't get at the essence of Yves in a few words. To say he is hyper-talented as an athlete, smart as a whip, and loyal to his team only scratches the surface," said Guelph head coach Dave Scott-Thomas. "He is a joy to be around and energizes our team with his pure love of running. We are seeing the emergence of one of the great talents of CIS track and field and an ever better story of what community, school and sport can do together."
 
The other nominees were Jordan Bruce of Dalhousie (AUS), Marc-Antoine Lafrenaye-Dugas of Sherbrooke (RSEQ) and Peter Millman of Lethbridge (Canada West).
 
The three-day national meet runs from Thursday to Saturday at the University of Alberta's Universiade Pavilion. All sessions will be webcast live onwww.CIS-SIC.tv.  
 
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/trackfield/index