| 2025 Liberty League Cross Country Championships |
| Date & Time: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025 – Men’s Race: 11 AM | Women’s Race: 12 PM |
| Location: Canton, N.Y. - Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course |
| Links: Live Results | Championship Page | Live Video |
The Liberty League Cross Country Championships are back in Canton, N.Y., for the second consecutive year on Saturday, November 1, with Clarkson University set to serve as the 2025 host.
The championships will be held at St. Lawrence University's Ronald C. Hoffmann Cross Country Course. The men's 8-kilometer race is slated for 11 AM and the women's 6-kilometer race follows at noon. An awards ceremony will wrap up the day’s events at 1 PM.
All eight Liberty League institutions that sponsor Cross Country will participate in this year’s championships: Bard College, Clarkson, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Ithaca College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), St. Lawrence, Union College, and Vassar College.
At the 2024 Men’s Cross Country Championship,
RPI captured its eighth straight Liberty League title as all five of the Engineers’ scoring runners placed among the top seven. In total, 14 of RPI’s runners at the championship were among the top 30; 12 earned All-Liberty League accolades (5 first team, 4 second team, 3 honorable mention). St. Lawrence was second with 73 points, and the Saints’ runner-up finish was highlighted by 2024 individual champion Nick Lyndaker. Lyndaker set a course record time of 24:35.3 and won the race by seven seconds. Vassar College (92) finished third, and the Brewers were followed by RIT (108), Union (125), Ithaca (132), Clarkson (196), Hobart (260), and Bard (293).
The Engineers are the only Men’s Cross Country team from the Liberty League ranked in the latest United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III poll heading into conference championships. RPI checks in at eighth overall and second in the Mideast Region. St. Lawrence and Vassar are also among the top ten Mideast Region teams at sixth and seventh, respectively. In the Niagara Region, RIT and Ithaca are featured among the top five (RIT, 3rd; Ithaca, 4th).
MEN'S PREVIEW | WOMEN'S PREVIEW
RPI is eyeing a ninth consecutive Liberty League title at this year’s championship as the Engineers are led by a trio of 2024 All-Liberty League first team honorees: Jack Loughery (4th, 24:50.0), Tobin Durham (5th, 24:54.4), and Evan Lacey (7th, 25:01.2). The Engineers are coming off a team victory at the Western New England Invitational and a third-place finish among 36 teams at Augustana’s Interregional Invitational. Lacey was the team’s top finisher at Augustana, placing 25th overall with a time of 24:52.4, while Tobin Durham was second on the team in 32nd (25:03.5), and Loughery was third for the Engineers (41st, 25:11.9). Other season highlights include team victories at Vassar’s Ron Stonisch Invitational and a third place showing at Williams’ Purple Valley Classic. At Williams, Lacey led the team and was seventh overall with a time of 24:58.7. Other key runners for RPI include Danny Gall and Justin Cascio. Gall was fifth at Vassar with a time of 19:34.1 in the 6-kilometer race. He was also third overall at the Western New England Invitational, crossing the finish line in 25:41.63. Cascio paced the team at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run with a time of 24:33.2 in the Gold Race, good for 105th among 344 runners. First-year Nathaniel McKee looks to make an impact at his first conference championship. The three-time Liberty League Rookie of the Week selection finished fourth overall and third for RPI at Western New England, clocking a time of 25:41.7.
St. Lawrence is seeking their first league title since 2015 heading into the 2025 championship. St. Lawrence posted team victories at the Plattsburgh 5K and Hamilton Short Course Invitational this year. They were also third at their own Hoffmann Invitational. A pair of veteran runners (Nick Lyndaker, Patrick Russell), who earned All-Liberty League accolades last year, headline the 2025 team. Nick Lyndaker, last year’s individual champion and 2024 Liberty League Co-Runner of the Year, clocked a course record time of 24:35.3 a year ago. This season, he won the Hamilton Short Course (5K, 15:14.9) and the Hoffmann Invitational (8K, 25:14.8). He also placed among the top 15 at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run White Race (13th, 24:44.9) and was 70th at the Connecticut College Invitational (25:11.00). Russell was among the top 21 at last year’s championship (20th, 25:31.1). In September, Russell recorded a top 10 finish at the Hoffmann, where he was ninth with a time of 25:45.1, and he was just .5 seconds behind Lyndaker at Connecticut College, crossing the finish line in 25:11.5 for 71st overall. Griffin Roeder also returns after placing among the top 30 last year (30th, 26:22.1). He opened the season with an individual victory at the Plattsburgh 5K with a time of 15:48.4 and most recently posted an 8-kilometer time of 25:58.0 at Connecticut College (White, 127th).
Vassar has been among the league’s top three teams at the last five Liberty League Championships with three runner-up finishes (2021, 2023, 2024) and two third-place showings (2022, 2025). The Brewers are paced by Sean Miller, who earned All-Liberty League second team honors last year, where he was 16th with a time of 25:44.5. This season, Miller has finished in the top 15 for all six of his races, including a pair of individual victories at the Vassar Season Starter and Vassar’s Ron Stonitsch Invitational with times of 12:15.8 (4K) and 19:13.0 (6K). He is coming off a season-best 8-kilometer time of 24:20.8 at the Connecticut College Invitational’s Blue Race, where he was 10th. He was also eighth at NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals (25:08.1) and 14th at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run (24:45.5). Max Frazee is set to race after finishing 26th (26:04.8) at last year’s league championship. He recorded a season-best time of 25:19.5 at the Paul Short Run this year, where he placed 52nd and was among the top 30 at Pre-Nationals with a time of 25:42.2 (27th). They will also have some depth with six rookies competing in their first Liberty League Championship, headlined by Jay Borland and Jack Brilliant. Borland had a personal-best time of 26:28.5 at the Paul Short Run, and Brilliant posted a personal-best time of 26:44.8 at Connecticut College.
RIT looks to improve upon its fourth-place finish at the 2024 Liberty League Championship, as the Tigers finished among the top three teams in all five races this season. They won the Houghton Highlander Invitational, were second in three invitationals (Brockport, Rochester, Oberlin), and finished third at Roberts Wesleyan. Derick Koen returns to lead the squad; he was a team-best eighth (All-Liberty League second team) a year ago, clocking a time of 25:05.7. He won the Houghton Invitational, crossing the finish line in 24:42.2, and garnered USTFCCCA National Runner of the Week honors for his efforts. He was also the individual runner-up at Rochester (8K, 25.17.2) and fourth at Oberlin (4.97 miles, 25:38.5). Evan Owens and Jackson Burger join Koen to bolster the RIT lineup. Owens was 24th with a time of 26:00.0 at last year’s championship, and Burger was 31st at 26:36.8. This year, they both posted season-best times at Houghton in the 8-kilometer race at 25:05.2 (7th) and 25:21.7 (13th), respectively. Owens also finished among the top seven at Rochester in sixth with a time of 25:37.2, and Burger was among the top 15 (14th), crossing the finish line in 25:59.3.
Other key runners to watch at this year’s championship….
Union’s Will Plante is the only senior on the Garnet Chargers. He was third on the team at last year’s championship with a time of 26:40.5 for 33rd overall. Plante’s 2025 campaign was highlighted by finishing 51st at Wesleyan’s Invitational, clocking a time of 26:33.5, good for second on the team. Ben Buffone of
Ithaca earned All-Liberty League second team accolades a year ago, where he finished a team-best 16th at 25:53.7. He is fresh off a personal-best 8-kilometer time of 25:13.6 at the Connecticut College Invitational; the meet had 264 runners, and he was 77th. A pair of runners lead the way for
Clarkson with the return of Drew Reigelsperger and the addition of first-year Matt Clarner. In their final 2025 tuneup prior to the league championship, Reigelsperger won the Cross Country Only Championship for the second straight year. He paced the field of 77 runners, crossing the finish line in 26:06.6 while Clarner was fourth overall with a time of 26:44.9. They were both among the top 10 at the Hamilton Invitational with Reigelsperger in third (26:04.2) and Clarner in 10th (26:40.1).
Hobart is paced by Duncan Kipkoech, who recorded a season-best time of 26:08.0 at Houghton’s Highlander Invitational for 29th this year. He is also coming off a runner-up finish at the Cross Country Only Championship (26:30.6). Elijah Flynn has been the top runner for
Bard this season, finishing in the top 20 in two meets—Highlander Invitational (11th) and the Raptors’ own Fred Pavlich Invitational (19th). He closed out the regular season with a personal-best time at Western New England for 46th.