Track & Field Competes at 2024 Liberty League Indoor Championships

Last week, the St. Lawrence University Saints Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams competed at the 2024 Liberty League Indoor Track and Field Championships. For the first time since 2018, the meet was hosted by St. Lawrence at Newell Fieldhouse. The Saints had some outstanding performances on both days of the meet, which I’ll recap here. 

The first two track events of the meet were the women’s and men’s one-mile races, which began at 2 p.m. on Friday. The women’s mile was headlined by Alli Sibold ’24, who is ranked second in the nation in this event with her time of 4:51.91, which she ran on January 12, 2024 at Utica University. Sibold is the St. Lawrence and Liberty League Conference record holder in the one-mile race.  

“Having the opportunity to race at home for the League Championship was incredibly special,” said Sibold. She certainly made the most of this opportunity, winning the mile in 4:55.07 and putting her name in the record books yet again as Newell Field House facility record holder. 

In the men’s race, Nick Lyndaker ’26 made sure that the Saints would defend Newell in both mile races. He outkicked two runners on the final lap after being in third place with 200 meters to go, winning the race with a time of 4:14.91. 

The first day had many other highlights for the Saints. Charlottle Blake ’27 got on the podium in the mile, finishing in sixth place with a personal best time of 5:10.19. Will Hauf ’25 set a big personal best time in the 60 meter dash preliminaries with a time of 6.97, along with podiuming with a sixth place finish in the long jump. Liv Bernier ’24 earned sixth place in the 5000m with a time of 18:39.60, and Zach Jaworski ’25 finished in third place in the shot put with a toss of 13.84m. 

The women’s team ended the first day on the track the same way as they started it: with a win. Their Distance Medley Relay team, which featured Hannah Bennett ’27 running the 1200m leg, Cameron Stone ’26 running the 400m leg, Quinn Sirgany ’27 running the 800m leg, and Emma Palumbo ’25 running the 1600m leg, achieved a first-place finish with a time of 12:37.79. 

On day two of the meet, Sibold and Lyndaker both returned to the track and scored their teams more valuable points with second place finishes in their respective races; Sibold in the 800m and Lyndaker in the 3000m 

Sibold ran a strong race in the 800m, finishing a close second with a time of 2:16.67, meaning she scored a total of 18 points on the weekend for St. Lawrence. “For both races, the final kick was fueled by the energy of the sidelines,” Sibold said. “The Liberty League is a crazy fast league so the cheering and sidelines made all the difference!” She was recognized as the meet’s co-Outstanding Track Performer after her great performances on both days. 

Lyndaker finished second in the 3000m with a time of 8:25.05, also scoring 18 total points on the weekend for the Saints. “They were both some of the most fun and competitive races I’ve ever been apart of,” Lyndaker said about his two races. “Especially the mile, when with less than two laps to go the entire field was still in contention for the win.” 

Also on day two, Bennett returned from the Distance Medley Relay to finish in seventh place in the 800m with a time of 2:23.40. Hauf ran a time of 7.05 in the final to place third in the 60m, and placed seventh in the 200m with a time of 22.88. Palumbo and Blake both returned to the track on day two to podium in the 3000m; Palumbo was fourth with a 10:16.78 time, and Blake was sixth with a 10:22.29 time. Michael Smigen ’27 placed fifth in the high jump with a jump of 1.79m, and Jaworski earned sixth in the weight throw with a 15.79m throw. 

The St. Lawrence Men’s team placed fifth overall at the meet, and the Women’s team placed sixth. Both teams will be back in action this weekend at the AARTFC indoor track and field championships, which start this Friday at Nazareth University in Pittsford, New York.