Seven Saints Finish in Top-10 to Win Opening Race of 2009

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Tara Freeman
Senior Hillary St. John was one of seven St. Lawrence runners to finish in the top-10.

Sept. 5: Seven members of the St. Lawrence University women's cross country team finished in the top-10 on Saturday afternoon, leading the Saints to victory at the 2009 Plattsburgh State "Cardinal Classic," their opening event of the season.

Junior Wendy Pavlus finished in second place overall out of 59 competitors on the 5K trail with a time of 18:20, while sophomore Jenna Hulton was third (18:21) and senior captain Johannah Ludington was fifth (18:44).

Junior Megan Derby, competing in her first collegiate cross country race, was sixth overall in 19:19, while first-year student Jackie Lemme (7th, 19:24), senior Hillary St. John (8th, 19:38) and sophomore McKayla Nuffer (10th, 19:58) rounded out the team's scorers en route to the win.  St. Lawrence finished with 23 points in the race, 14 fewer than the hosting Cardinals.

"I'm very pleased with the way we came out of the gate and ran hard today," said St. Lawrence head women's cross country coach Mike Howard.  "To have seven runners finish in the top-10 shows our depth and we'll look to carry this momentum into our next race."

Sophomore Melanie Solandt (13th, 20:16) and rookie Andrea Maynard (14th, 20:18) narrowly missed on scoring for the Scarlet and Brown on Saturday.  Junior Katie Loignon (16th, 20:26), senior captain Chelsea Nuffer (17th, 20:33), junior Liz Atwood (18th, 20:34), senior Alexis Nuffer (19th, 20:45) and sophomore Jenny Kaagan (20th, 20:51) also earned top-20 showings in the event.

First-year students Elizabeth Edwards (22nd, 20:53), Erikka Nuffer (26th, 21:42) and Caroline Raue (31st, 22:01) also represented St. Lawrence on the women's side at the "Cardinal Classic."  Plattsburgh State's Jenny Schaffhouser won the meet with a time of 17:53.

St. Lawrence will compete again on Wednesday, September 9 at the North Country Quad Meet hosted by Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY.  The race will begin at 4:00pm.