St. Lawrence University's women's cross country team kicked "Championship Season" off in style on Saturday, winning their sixth straight New York State Collegiate Track Conference cross country championship on a muddy course at Hamilton College.

Senior Amy Cymerman became the fifth Saint individual champion in the last six years, setting a course record with a time of 21:54.3, over five seconds in front of second place finisher Grace Tilton of RPI. The Saints placed four in the top ten and their fifth and final scorer was 18th for a 34 point total, 30 points better than second-place Ithaca which had 64. Host Hamilton was third with 77 and RPI was fourth with 79 in a 11-team field.

Cymerman was named the Outstanding Runner in the meet and coach Mike Howard and assistant Kate Curran were honored as coaching staff of the year.

Cymerman led the 129-runner field with a pace of 5:53 per mile on a wet and muddy 6 kilometer course. Senior Ariel Beccia continued her string of strong finishes with a third overall in 22:26.5 while Anne Martino was fifth in 22:46.8 and Lisa Grohn was seventh in 23:06.4. Anna Rabideau completed the Saint scoring with a 18th place finish in 23:45.9 while Melanie Swick was the sixth Saint finisher in 25th overall at 24:00.5 and senior Toria Koutras completed the Saint top seven in 28th, running 24:20.0. The Saints were without sophomore Margaret MacDonald, a potential top ten finisher, who has been out with an injury.

Other Saint finishers included Kelsey Leder, 36th in 24:37.4, Mary Beth Benzing, 66th in 25:30.7, Kate Sneden 69th in 25:38.2, Lydia Vogt 75th in 25:52.7, Claire Pacione 83rd in 26:11.6, Madeline Funk 86th in 26:13.5, Katie Mannix 104th in 27:32.7 and Kendra Sultzer 108th in 27:48.6.

The Saints, ranked third in the Atlantic Region and 18th nationally will be out to add to an impressive string of Liberty League championships when they run in that title race at Bard on Nov. 2.