Antigonish, NS— X-Men offensive lineman Jacob Czaja was drafted 64^th overall in the eighth round of the CFL draft by the Ottawa Redblacks on Thursday evening.

X-Men head coach Gary Waterman notes, "The entire StFX football family was excited to see Jacob Czaja's name called in the 2018 CFL draft. As a captain of the X-Men, Jacob has been a tremendous leader and an excellent representative of StFX University and the X-Men football program. We are all very proud of him."

A fourth year business student from Sudbury, Ont., the 6'3", 290 pound lineman has been one of the leaders on the X-Men offensive line, earning AUS all-star status in each of the past three seasons. Czaja was a key piece of StFX's back-to-back AUS Loney Bowl championships in 2016 and 2015 and he suited up for the East team last year in the U SPORTS East-West Bowl that showcased draft-eligible athletes.

Czaja was the only X-Men selected in the 2018 CFL draft and one of five AUS athletes chosen. Other Atlantic University Sport athletes selected amongst the 56 U SPORTS athletes included Mathieu Breton (BU, 36^th), Tresor Buama-Mafuta (SMU, 45^th), Matthew Ouellet de Carlo (BU, 49^th) and Gabriel Bagnell (ACA, 57^th).

The complete list of CFL draft selections are available at https://www.cfl.ca/draft-tracker/2018/. For the U SPORTS story on the CFL draft, click here.

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