St. Lawrence opens the 2025 indoor season this weekend at the Saints Holiday Relays, welcoming opponent from around upstate New York to the Newell Fieldhouse on Friday.

"We are looking forward to getting the track and field season started this weekend in Newell," said head coach John Newman. "The Saints Holiday Relays is our traditional kick off to the indoor season which always seems to bring out a lot of positive energy. This also gives us a starting point going into the last couple weeks of the semester and break."

The Saints return to competition after a strong finish to last year's indoor campaign, where Nick Lyndaker took a national championship. The senior won it in the mile at the NCAA Division III Championships, becoming the program's first men's national champion since 2010 after crossing the line in 4:06.45. He also placed 20th in the 3000 at the national meet. Lyndaker is coming off back-to-back Liberty League championships in cross country as well.

The team wrapped up the indoor team season at the AARTFC Championships in Ithaca, where multiple athletes recorded personal bests and regional-level performances. At regionals, Lyndaker posted the top finish of the weekend for St. Lawrence by placing third in the 800 with a personal-best time of 1:53.33. Patrick Russell led the Saints in the 5000 on day one with a ninth-place time of 15:16.37, followed by Griffin Roeder in 12th at 15:29.32.

The Liberty League Championships produced several additional highlights. Lyndaker won both the mile and the 3000 on the way to earning the individual track athlete of the meet honor.

The Saints now begin building toward the championship phase of the year. "We graduated large number of team members last spring but our returning group made lot of progress last year," Newman said. "Therefore we are really excited to continue to develop as a team as well as see where our first years stack up as we get the season rolling."

Looking further ahead, Newman added that hosting the outdoor Liberty League Championships at Merrick-Pinkard Track & Field Complex is already driving the group. "It's a ways off right now but getting to host the outdoor conference championship on the M-P has everyone motivated to get as many qualifiers as possible for the Liberty League Championships both indoor as well as outdoor."

The Saints begin that pursuit on Saturday as the indoor season gets underway.