St. Lawrence University's men's cross country team bunched all five of its scorers in the top nine to win its fourth New York State Collegiate Track Conference cross country championship in the last five years on a slick and muddy course at Hamilton College on Saturday.

Junior captain Trevor Bibb led the Saints with a second place overall finish in the 127 runner field with a time of 26:29.4. Brendan Courneene was third in 26:38.7, Scott Smolensky was fifth in 26:41, Thomas Caulfield was sixth in 26:42.7 and Wesley Kirui finished ninth in 27:01.5 to clinch the Saint title as the Saints compiled 25 points with RPI a distant second with 69. Host Hamilton was third and Ithaca fourth in the 12-team field.

Caulfield earned NYSCTC Cross Country Rookie of the Year honors for his finish and coach John Newman was the NYSCTC Coach of the Year.

"Our team strategy of keeping our pack together and near the front of the race worked exceptionally well, even in the wet and muddy conditions at Hamilton," said Newman. "We ran today without one of our most consistent scorers in co-captain, Landen Elliott-Knaggs who we expect back for Liberty Leagues next week. With the absence of Landen, Thomas Caulfield rose to the challenge with his best race of the season to capture 6th overall and our 4th scorer, to earn him NYSCTC Rookie of the Meet. This team is rounding into great form and today provided a great primer for the Liberty League Championships next weekend at Bard College."

The Saints, who were second in the NYSCTC race a year ago, will be out to continue a long string of Liberty League Championships when they race at Bard next Saturday.

In addition to the strong finish by the Saint lead pack, the Saints' displacers, sixth and seventh runners who do not score, but occupy spots to drop competing runners back, took 13th and 14th with Aaron Tompkins 13th in 27:13.9 and Spencer Patterson 14th in 27:17.1.

Other Saint finishers in Saturday's race included Jason Hardacre, who was 23rd overall in 27:38.4, Joe Smith, 32nd in 27:52.9, Andrew Jarombek, who was 37th in 28:00, Benjamin Fishbein, 40th in 28:01.6, Steve Petramale, 49th in 2818.5, Adam Bankert, 53rd in 28:29.6, Will Manning, 75th in 2904.5 and Josh Ringer, who was 89th in 29:59.0.