St. Lawrence University's Ronald C. Hoffman Cross Country Course will play host to the 2024 Liberty League Championship this Saturday, November 2, in Canton, N.Y. The women's race will begin at 11 a.m., while the men race is set to begin at 12 p.m.
Championship Meet Packet
Liberty League Championship History: Men | Women
USTFCCCA Regional Rankings: Men | Women
USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll: Men | Women
Men's Race
RPI enters the race as the Liberty League's seven-time defending men's cross country champion, and is the No. 1-ranked team in the Mideast Region entering conference championship weekend.
Last season, RPI's team featured runner of the year Cory Kennedy, who took first place in the event.
Look for host St. Lawrence to threaten as
Nick Lyndaker returns as the lowest finisher from the 2023 championships. He finished second in the individual table, missing out due to Kennedy's winning performance.
Lyndaker is coming off setting the fastest time in a non-NCAA event in Saints program history. His time of 24:20.0 at the eight-kilometer Conn College course is the fastest time recorded by a Saint since 2011. That time is 27 seconds better than the best time recorded at the 2023 Liberty League championship.
St. Lawrence also features many returning runners who narrowly missed all-Liberty League distinction in last year's race.
Patrick Russell,
Matt Serrano and
Colin Young occupied the 23
rd-25
th spots in the field, and with seniors departed may stand a shot to register more Saints in the top-21 on their home course.
St. Lawrence is sixth in the NCAA's Mideast Region entering the weekend; second-highest rank of any Liberty League team.
Vassar and Union are also ranked squads. The Brewers were just leapfrogged by St. Lawrence for sixth in the Mideast Region; they currently are seventh in the regional rankings. This comes off Vassar's 13
th place finish as a team at Conn College, while St. Lawrence finished eighth.
Women's Race
Much like their counterparts in the men's division, RPI is the highest ranked Liberty League team in women's cross country entering the women's race this weekend. Julianne Bleskoski has finished top-two in every event she has raced in to this point this season, as the sophomore enters her second conference championship.
She was the USTFCCCA Division III National Women's Athlete of the Week earlier this October, after Bleskoski won the Paul Short Run Women's College White 6k race, hosted by Lehigh on Saturday. She topped the field of 373 runners with a time of 20:42.5 (5:34 per mile pace) and recorded a margin of victory of nearly six seconds.
Bleskoski beat three top ten finishers from last year's NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships as well as four other All-Americans. This was the second straight first place finish for the sophomore, she also earned top honors at Williams College's Purple Valley Invitational on September 21st (25:20.9).
Olivia Pisacano, last year's runner-up at the Liberty League championship, returns to the event this year. She finished second to St. Lawrence's
Alli Sibold in the six-kilometer race, and Sibold has now graduated and is no longer competing for St. Lawrence.
The other impact returner is Vassar's sophomore Haley Schoenegge, who was third overall as a first-year in the 2023 Liberty League championship. She has helped carry Vassar to a sixth overall ranking in the Mideast Region, the second-highest of three ranked Liberty League squads. Schoenegge is coming off a strong performance at Conn College, where she paced the Brewers with a fourth place finish out of 277 total finishers with a time of 21:13.4.
St. Lawrence is 10
th in the region entering the weekend. The event's fourth-place finisher,
Emma Palumbo, is the highest returning finisher for St. Lawrence. The Saints have also benefited from first-year
Avery Blanchard's times; she has a first-place finish already at the Plattsburgh 5K earlier this season.
Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course
Named in honor of St. Lawrence Hall of Famer and former cross country coach Ronald C. Hoffmann '54, the Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course is the home of the St. Lawrence University men's and women's cross country teams.
Located adjacent to Leithead Fieldhouse and Newell Field House on the St. Lawrence University campus, the course is the home of the annual Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational, and has hosted numerous Liberty League, NCAA Atlantic and Mideast Regional Championships. The course is a mix of grass, cinder and wooded trails and features an iconic hill that runners climb twice in the race. A long straightaway over the final 400 meters creates an exciting finish for both runners and spectators alike.
6K Course Map
8K Course Map
Forecast
Spectators, coaches and competitors can expect sunshine along with some cloudy intervals in Canton, N.Y. on Saturday. High around 45. Winds are expected to be light and variable.
