No. 6 Saints Win Eighth Straight Liberty League Title

by: 

Tara Freeman

The Saints won their eighth straight Liberty League championship on Saturday.

Oct. 10: The No. 6 St. Lawrence University women's cross country team captured its eighth straight Liberty League championship on Saturday afternoon at the Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course in Canton, NY.  The Saints trio of senior captain Johannah Ludington, junior Wendy Pavlus and sophomore Jenna Hulton paced the Scarlet and Brown, with Ludington crossing the finish line first for the individual crown.

The Saints won the team title with 21 points on the rain-soaked 6k course, defeating runner-up Rensselaer by 34 points.  Vassar finished third with 62 points, followed by Union (111), Clarkson (153) and William Smith (161). 

"The course was obviously wet today, but I thought we handled the conditions pretty well," said St. Lawrence head coach Mike Howard.  "We ran an aggressive first mile then ran a controlled race to the finish line."

The win was the first of Ludington's career, as she finished second to Pavlus in the 2008 conference championship meet.  The Morrisville, VT native's time of 22:42 was two seconds ahead of Pavlus and Hulton, who clocked in with matching times of 22:44.

Completing the Saints' team scoring on Friday were first-year student Jackie Lemme and senior Hillary St. John.  Lemme finished in seventh place overall with a time of 23:56, while St. John was one spot behind in eighth place in 24:02.

Sophomores McKayla Nuffer and Megan Derby each earned Second Team All-Conference honors by finishing in 9^th and 14^th place, respectively.  Nuffer raced in 24:04 to earn a top-10 finish while Derby finished in 24:31, narrowly ahead of classmate Jenny Kaagan (15^th, 24:33) and senior Alexis Nuffer (16^th, 24:37).

First-year student Andrea Maynard (19^th, 25:10), junior Elizabeth Atwood (21^st, 25:25), rookie Erikka Nuffer (23^rd, 25:30) and sophomores Melanie Solandt (24^th, 25:35) and Abbie Macbeth (25^th, 25:35) rounded out St. Lawrence's runners that earned top-25 finishes.

Also competing for the Scarlet and Brown in the 2009 Liberty League Championship race were senior captain Chelsea Nuffer (32^nd, 25:55), rookie Caroline Raue (33^rd, 25:56), junior Katie Loignon (37^th, 26:13), sophomore Elizabeth Edwards (43^rd, 26:33) and first-year student Megan Nuffer (52^nd, 27:37).

The Saints will have next week off from competition but will return to action at the 2009 NYSCTC Championships at Rochester on Saturday, October 24.