Men’s Track and FieldOutdoor Season Preview

The St. Lawrence Men’s Track and Field program has not won a Liberty League outdoor championship since 2008. Head coach John Newman ’94 believes this upcoming season will be a strong step towards reaching that goal again.

Last spring, they finished over 50 points behind fourth-place Ithaca College in the outdoor Liberty League championships. In the Liberty League Indoor championships this past weekend, they beat the Bombers by 15.

The Liberty League is one of the most competitive conferences in the country, featuring dozens of All-Americans and a few national champions. “Our conference is super competitive, and it has been for quite a few years now. That’s a good thing, because it raises everyone’s level,” Newman said.

The Saints will look to several big point scorers, such as first-semester senior captain Zach Jaworski ’24, a team leader in his throwing events, to challenge these teams in the coming season. “Zach has been a really good leader for the throws group, showing that hard work does pay off,” Newman said. “He spent almost the whole summer working on his hammer because he just wants to be so much better at it. Jaworski has scored at nearly every Liberty League championship he has competed in but has never finished higher than third. He is entering his final season at SLU.

“It’s a very unique opportunity to come out here and compete with the guys for the last time,” Jaworski said. “There’s a great sense of excitement that comes with that. Everyone wants to come out on top.” He espouses the same team-oriented mindset as his head coach. “This team is not happy with the fourth and fifth place finishes anymore,” Jaworski said. “I think we are going to make some noise in outdoor and surprise some people.”

The Saints will also look to their long and middle-distance runners for points – at this year’s indoor championship, sophomore Nicholas Lyndaker ’26 won the mile in a time of 4:14 and finished second in the 3000-meter run in 8:25. He also ran a school record of 4:11.99 at the AARTFC championships on Saturday. Senior captain Michael Skutt ’24 is also one of the top-ranked distance runners in the conference. “Mike and Nick are the strong-holds for us in the distance events,” Newman said. “We do have some guys stepping up and doing some really big things there. Another returner who has made huge inroads is sophomore Patrick Russell… he is going to be eyeing the steeplechase.”

During last year’s outdoor season, Matthew Abell ’23 broke the St. Lawrence school record for the steeplechase. In this indoor season, Russell ran as fast or faster than most of Abell’s personal records. “There is a chance that he could be vying for that [school record] by the time he graduates,” Newman said.

The sprints are another rich area for big performances and improvement from last season. Last weekend, junior captain William Hauf ’26 ran a 6.97-second 60-meter dash: a 0.16-second PR. “When I ran fast, I wasn’t really pushing for anything. I was just going out there and doing whatever I could without any pressure,” Hauf said. “It was great; second kid in school history to break seven seconds, an amazing accomplishment,” said sprint coach Erik Geier ’23. “It puts him in an amazing spot going into the 100.”

This bodes well for the Saints’ highly ranked 4×100-meter relay in the upcoming season. These strong performances do more than just score points on paper, however. “They are running inspirational type performances,” Newman said. “When someone runs a race like that…that gets all the other event groups all fired up. It gives you a lot of hope and excitement, thinking, ‘Hey, I train with this guy every day, maybe I can do that too.’”

The Saints also have a large in- coming freshman class, including some likely contributors to team scoring. “Carter Daniels is starting to really figure things out… Caleb Young is in a similar boat. Bodie (Molnar), for sure, once he’s going, will make a big impact. Erik Shattenburg was injured all of in-door… he is going to help us quite a bit in the long and triple jump,” Newman said.

Newman is optimistic, given these improvements. “I think we can contend for, as crazy as it seems, maybe that third spot… because I do believe (RIT) is in range,” Newman said.

One struggle they are facing is in the hurdles. “We are kind of lacking a hurdler. The hurdles have been kind of our strong point, with now-coach Geier out of the mix,” Newman said. Geier set a program record in the 60 hurdles last year and scored in nearly every hurdle event he contested. He transitioned to a job as a sprint coach at SLU this year. “Being on the team before, I got to see what the strengths were and what the things are that I wish we had more of… I get to add some things in [those] areas,” Geier said.

The Saints look to display these improvements at four meets during the regular season, including two home meets and the Bison Outdoor Classic hosted by Bucknell University, which will feature dozens of teams as well as some of the strongest performers across all divisions of NCAA Track and Field.

They will also compete at the Liberty League championships, the main event of the season, before moving on to the AARTFC championships and then the NCAAs.