CANTON -- With five of the top seven runners returning, including two All-America selections from 2015, the St. Lawrence University men's cross country team will look to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the ninth consecutive season in 2016.

Last year, the Saints qualified for the national championship automatically by virtue of their second-place finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional. The team was 15th at the NCAA Championships, with Joe Smith and Thomas Caulfield earning All-America honors with 10th and 25th-place finishes, respectively.

The Saints will also look to extend their run of conference championships to 22; St. Lawrence has won the Liberty League title every year since the league's inception in 2004. The Saints also won every league title from 1995 to 2003 when the conference was named the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association.

In addition to seniors Caulfield and Smith, who finished second and third at regionals, 2015 Liberty League Rookie of the Year Sidi Abdoulaye will look to build on an incredibly successful first year for the Saints which included a 10th-place finish at regionals.

"Our top three are very solid," said Head Men's Cross Country Coach John Newman '94, a 12-time Liberty League Coach of the Year. "We're feeling really good about our front group. We've also got Benjamin Fishbein; he had a great race at nationals year, so that gives us four. The bigger question mark is who is going to fill in after that."

There will be a large group of runners trying to get into those coveted top-seven spots. Newman says more than a dozen runners may have a shot at being in a position to score for the Saints, based on what he's seen so far in early-season workouts. He also believes that this year's group of upperclassmen in leadership roles, especially captains Caulfield, Smith and Evan Garvey, puts the team in a position to have a truly special season.

"The years that we've been exceptional are years that we've had exceptional leaders," said Newman. "It's real early, but our leadership group is on target to do the right things to help us be the best we can be."

The Saints open the season with the 10th Alumni Race/Run 4 Ryan this Saturday at 11 a.m., and will face intercollegiate competition for the first time at the Cardinal Classic at SUNY Plattsburgh on Saturday, Sept. 3. After hosting the Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational on Sept. 24, the team will head to Bethlehem, Pa., for the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University on Oct. 1, where they will face many of the top NCAA Division I and Division II teams in the northeast.

"That's one of my favorite meets," said Newman. "It's a great championship caliber meet and it gives us a chance to really mix it up and blow the jets out one time mid-season against really good competition so our best guys really get a chance to see where they stack up."

The Saints will compete at the Liberty League Championships on Oct. 29 at Hobart, then will compete at the NCAA Atlantic Regional on Nov. 12 at Rowan University.