Cross Country, Men’s Soccer Continue NCAA Competition on Saturday

Both XC teams and men's soccer will be in NCAA competition this weekend.

Nov. 16: The nationally-ranked No. 2 St. Lawrence University men's soccer team will compete in the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at 11:00am when the team hosts Oneonta State at Sandy MacAllaster Field.  Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 miles away in Winneconne, WI, the national-ranked men's and women's cross country teams will toe the line at the 2011 NCAA Championship races.

Head coach Bob Durocher's men's soccer squad will have a rematch of the Saints' 2011 season opener, as the Scarlet and Brown held off the Red Dragons by the score of 3-2.  After falling behind 1-0, St. Lawrence rallied with three straight goals from Dan Marvin, Brian Gilloran and Sam DeMello to take a 3-1 advantage with 27:21 remaining.  Though Raymond Fitzpatrick pulled Oneonta State to within a goal with over 20:00 minutes to play, the visitors were unable to score the equalizer and St. Lawrence celebrated the 3-2 win.

The opening weekend of the Division III soccer championship was a wild one, as two teams that hadn't lost all season, Messiah and Christopher Newport, fell in one-goal games.  The Saints advanced in a dramatic 3-2 overtime thriller of Western New England, while Oneonta knocked off Baldwin-Wallace (2-1) and Penn State Behrend (4-0).

Babson and Rutgers-Camden will play in the other third round games in Canton, NY on Saturday at 1:00pm.  The winners of both games will square off for a spot in the final four in San Antonio, TX at 1:00pm on Sunday.

A live, free broadcast of all three NCAA soccer games will be available on America One.  Live stats will also be provided for each game.

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh will host the 2011 NCAA Division III cross country championships on Saturday at the Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne.  Both St. Lawrence teams will be competing for the third straight season after winning the Atlantic Regional titles in the same year for the first time in school history.

The No. 7 men's squad is coming off of its first regional crown since 2000, and head coach John Newman was rewarded with Regional Coach of the Year honors for the first time.  The Saints finished third at the NCAA Championships last fall, the highest finish in program history, as both John Johnston and Steve Kiplagat earned All-America honors.

Seth Jackson and Sam Rakoc return to the NCAA Championship race again this year, but a trio of newcomers will look to round out the team's scoring on Saturday.  Senior Alex Calderwood clinched the team's regional title on Saturday, while underclassmen Brendan Courneene and Scott Smolensky will look to notch solid finishes.

On the women's side, the senior duo of Jenna Hulton and McKayla Nuffer locked down No. 5 St. Lawrence's third straight Atlantic Regional title, leading head coach Mike Howard to receive Coach of the Year honors.  Hulton, an All-American in 2009, will look to lead St. Lawrence in her final collegiate cross country race.  She and Nuffer will be joined by NCAA returners Jackie Lemme and Amy Cymerman.

Coach Howard is expected to start a trio of NCAA rookie runners on Saturday, including first-year student Megan Hulton, who has had an exceptional campaign.  Her classmate, Anne Martino, and sophomore Caroline Raue are also slated to run for the Scarlet and Brown.

The women's 6,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m. (CT), and the men's 8,000-meter competition starts at noon (CT). A total of 560 runners from 134 different schools will participate in the event, which was last hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1999. Each race will field 32 teams of seven runners, along with 56 individuals who received at-large selections.

For information and updates throughout the cross country teams' trip to Wisconsin, follow @SaintsXCTF on Twitter.