Liberty League Cross Country Championships Recap
Last Weekend, St. Lawrence Hosted an Exciting Meet on the Ronald C. Hoffmann Championship Course
Over the weekend St. Lawrence cross country hosted the Liberty League Championships. The program had not hosted since 2015. Despite heavy rainfall the evening prior the Ronald C. Hoffman cross country course had its records shattered.
In the women’s field sophomore Haley Schoenegge fended off challengers from RPI. In turn Schoenegge dipped just below the previous 6K course record, running 20:59. The previous course record was held by Parley Hannan, at the frigid, snowy Atlantic regional meet back in 2019. Hannan would go on to run away with the national title afterwards in Louisville.
For the Saints, Avery Blanchard and Charlotte Blake finished 9th and 10th respectively to lead the team. Blanchard, a first year, has been a consistent leader for the Saints in her rookie season. The Saints finished a respective 3rd, with Vassar taking the title closely followed by RPI.
Both Both Vassar and RPI are ranked in the USTFCCCA’s national coach’s poll and look like sure qualifiers for national bids in the extremely deep Mideast Region. The Saints will travel to Connecticut next weekend seeking their own bid to the national meet, which would be the third consecutive nationals qualification for the St. Lawrence women.
High noon on the men’s side, was a real barn-burner. The opening mile of the 8K featured a tight pack of over 20 runners. In particular a very deep performing RPI team that has taken the League title in every championship since 2016. But in the sea of Engineers, Nick Lyndaker stayed poised and controlled. Through to the 5K a large pack remained, not atypical of championship meets, but at a much faster pace than previously anticipated.
At around a mile to go, the race to win remained with Lyndaker from SLU with Simonetti and Craun for RPI. With around 500m to go Lyndaker held form and stormed ahead of Simonetti. His time of 24:35, a Hoffman 8K course record.
This race rewrote the Hoffmann Cross Country course record books, as before this only three men had ever dipped under the 25:00 barrier on this course, and six did at Liberty Leagues. The record was previously held by Lee Berube of SUNY Geneseo, who ran 24:39 at the 2011 Atlantic Regional Meet.
Assistant Coach Erik Geier said afterwards, “He stayed in position through the race and made a textbook finish at the critical moment. It was a very exciting race waiting for Nick to make a move.” The Saints finished second, behind nationally ranked RPI. The men’s team is also traveling to the Mideast regional meet next week in Connecticut to try to get a nationals bid.