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Cymerman, Saints women's track continue domination of Liberty League championship

Posted 10/27/12

Its two down and one to go for St. Lawrence University's women's cross country team as it tries to keep a string of major meet championships alive. The Saints, ranked seventh nationally, came within …

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Cymerman, Saints women's track continue domination of Liberty League championship

Posted

Its two down and one to go for St. Lawrence University's women's cross country team as it tries to keep a string of major meet championships alive.

The Saints, ranked seventh nationally, came within a point of their own record for low score in dominating the 2012 Liberty League Championships on Clarkson's new 5K Munter Trails in Potsdam on Saturday, and now set their sights on a fourth straight NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship following Saturday's 11th straight conference title win.

SLU has swept the Liberty League, New York State Collegiate Track Conference and NCAA Atlantic Regional titles in each of the three seasons and have a chance for a fourth straight sweep with a team which has different runners step to the forefront in nearly every race.

Junior Amy Cymerman led the Saints for the second straight weekend and became the fourth different Saint runner to win a race this season when she outkicked RPI's Grace Tilton and SLU rookie Ella Martin to win in 21:43 and the Saints placed all seven of their runners in the top eight with only Tilton, second by four seconds, spoiling the party. Cymerman became the 10th straight Saint to win a Liberty League individual championship.

The Saints led the eight-team field with 18 points while RPI was second with 61 followed by Vassar with 99, RIT with 105, William Smith with 142, Clarkson with 147, Union at 204 and Bard with 260.

Martin was the top rookie finisher in the race with a time of 21:49, just three seconds in front of classmate Margaret MacDonald, who was fourth in 21:52. The Saint quartet of Anne Martino, Jackie Lemme, Elizabeth Edwards and Caroline Raue followed MacDonald across the line, all finishing within three seconds of each other from 22:34 to 22:37.

"We wanted to concentrate on running as a team and working together in groups this week, and we certainly did that," said Saint coach Mike Howard. "That is the way we are going to want to compete the rest of the way."

The top tens by Martino and Lemme were their first of the year and helped offset an injury to junior Ariel Beccia, normally in the top five for the Saints. Beccia did compete on Saturday, finishing as the Saints' ninth runner in 20th place despite running with a sleeve on her knee.

Toria Koutras was the eighth Saint finisher, 15th overall in 23:27 with Jess Marini following Beccia in 22nd place in 23:48. The Saints had ten runners in before second place RPI completed its top seven. Anna Rabideau finished 26th in23:57 with Kelsey Leder 29th in 24:07, Katie Mannix 53rd in 25:08, Kate Sneden 57th in 25:18, Andrea Maynard 63rd in 25:25; Madeline Woods 71st in 25:55; Jenny Van Ooyen 76th in 26:23; Courtney Mullen 77th in 26:35, Kendra Sultzer 87th in 27:24, Laurel Hurd 94th in 28:14 and Chloe McElligott was 101st in 29:38.

The Saints will run in the Atlantic Regional with an eye on yet another team qualification for the NCAA Championships at Rochester on Saturday.