For the second straight event, the St. Lawrence University men's cross country team had their best performance come from a first-year runner as they competed on their home course at the 34th Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational on Saturday.

Nico Conathan-Leach paced St. Lawrence with an eighth-place finish in 26:07.0 after having the top finish for the Scarlet and Brown in their season-opener in Plattsburgh on September 5.

"It was a gorgeous day on the Hoff and the team performed very well for us in our first 8000m race of the season," said Saints head coach John Newman. "Nico had an impressive showing today to lead our scoring group of four first years and Cyrus.  Oren, Pierce and Luke really stepped up and made their debut Hoffmann performances memorable as part of the Saints team. I also want to give Carter a shout out today for shaving a full three minutes off of his best time from last year."

The next three Saints to cross the line were also first-year runners. Oren Winters was 21st in 27:01.0, Pierce McCormack crossed the line 22nd in 27:09.1 and Luke Pelton took 25th in 27:23.0. Junior captain Cyrus Goetze was the fifth Saint to finish, placing 28th in 27:29.2.

Queen's (Canada), the two-time defending U SPORTS cross country champions, took the team title in the event for the third consecutive year. They are first team other than St. Lawrence to win the Hoffmann three times in a row. SUNY Cortland had previously joined the Golden Gaels as back-to-back champs in 2012 and 2013. St. Lawrence has three-peated or more on five different occasions in the history of the Hoffmann Invitational dating back to the event's inception in 1993.

St. Lawrence now heads out to Troy, N.Y. for the RPI Fairgrounds Showdown on Saturday, September 26 for their next competition.