The 2026 Liberty League Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday, October 31, in Red Hook, N.Y., with Bard College hosting.
The championships will be held at Bard’s Montgomery Place Campus, with the women’s 6-kilometer race starting at 11 AM and the men’s 8-kilometer race following at noon. An awards ceremony will conclude the day’s events at 1 PM.
All nine Liberty League institutions that sponsor Cross Country will participate in this year's championships: Bard, Clarkson University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Ithaca College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), St. Lawrence University, Union College, and Vassar College.
At last year’s Women’s Cross Country Championship, Vassar claimed its third consecutive Liberty League title as all five of the Brewers’ scoring runners placed among the top 13, totaling 36 points for the team title. In total, seven from Vassar earned All-Liberty League honors: three on the First Team, two on the Second Team, and two as Honorable Mention honorees. RPI’s Jules Bleskoski was the individual champion, crossing the finish line in 21:17.3, 30 seconds ahead of Vassar’s Haley Schoenegge. St. Lawrence finished runner-up with 69 points, and RPI placed third with 75 points. Ithaca (86), RIT (104), Union (165), William Smith (221), Clarkson (241), and Bard (283) rounded out the conference teams.
On the men’s side, RPI earned its ninth straight Liberty League title, and all five of the Engineers’ scoring runners earned All-League First Team accolades (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th). As a team, RPI tallied 22 points, and all 14 Engineers recorded a top 21 finish and All-Liberty League recognition (5 first team, 4 second team, 5 honorable mention). St. Lawrence finished runner-up for the second straight year (69 points), led by two-time individual champion Nick Lyndaker (25:16.6). RIT was third with 83 points on the day, and the Tigers were followed by Vassar (112), Ithaca (131), Union (177), Clarkson (186), Hobart (255), and Bard (272).
The Vassar women and the RPI men are the only Liberty League teams currently ranked in the latest United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III polls, with Vassar checking in at No. 18 and RPI ranked eighth. Vassar is also ranked third in the women’s Mideast Region rankings, while RPI is eighth and St. Lawrence is ninth. In the Niagara region, RIT is fourth, and Ithaca is tenth. RPI leads the Men’s Mideast region, Vassar is sixth, and St. Lawrence is ninth. Ithaca and RIT are both among the Niagara region’s top ten, in sixth and seventh, respectively.
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
Vassar is seeking to extend its Liberty League title streak to four straight heading into the 2026 championship. As a team this season, the Brewers posted four top-five finishes (1 first, 2 second, 1 fifth) and one tenth-place showing at the Pre-National Invitational. They are headlined by senior Haley Schoenegge, who has won four races this season, and she was the runner-up at the Connecticut College Invitational. Schoenegge posted a career-best 6K time of 20:49.2 at the RPI Fairgrounds Showdown in September and captured the individual title at the Pre-National Invitational with a time of 21:07.1. She will look to reclaim the individual title at this year’s Liberty League Championship after placing second in 2025 (21:47.4). Schoenegge captured the title in 2024 with a championship-record time of 20:59.6 and placed third as a first-year in 2023 (22:15.0). Schoenegge will be joined by classmates Adelaide Nyhan (5th, 22:46.5) and Acadia Helfand (12th, 23:07.3), who both earned All-Liberty League honors a year ago. Two weeks ago, Nyhan clocked a season and career-best 6K time of 21:44.2 at the Connecticut College Invitational, good for 34th overall. She opened 2026 as the runner-up at Bard’s Fred Pavlich Invitational (5K, 20:01.5) and recorded a sixteenth-place finish at RPI (6K – 21:55.9). Helfand was among the top 15 at Bard (12th, 5K – 20:56.2) and crossed the finish line in just over 23 minutes (6K – 23:00.3) at RPI for 55th overall. Eden Panchison will look to make an impact at her first conference championship; the four-time Rookie of the Week selection was 18th at Vassar’s Ron Stonitsch Invitational (5K – 19:58.2) and 36th in her first collegiate 6K (22:34.7).
St. Lawrence enters the 2026 championship with an experienced roster and hopes of capturing its first Liberty League title since 2018. The Saints will be led by a quartet of All-Liberty League honorees with the return of Avery Blanchard (6th, First Team), Charlotte Blake (9th, Second Team), Quinn Sirgany (10th, Second Team), and Madison Beaudoin (14th, Second Team). This season, Blanchard has led St. Lawrence in three races, while Sirgany paced the Saints at the RPI Fairgrounds Showdown. Blanchard won the Plattsburgh Cardinal Classic (5K – 19:03.9) to kick off the 2026 campaign. She was also sixth at St. Lawrence’s own Hoffmann Invitational (23:08.2) and most recently was 60th at the Connecticut College Invitational with a career-best 6K time of 22:05.5. Sirgany was 13th at RPI, clocking a time of 21:50.7. She also placed among the top 15 at Hoffmann (14th, 23:57.9). Blake posted a top 20 finish at RPI with a time of 22:05.2, good for 18th, and she was third at Plattsburgh. Beaudoin also posted a career-best 6K time at Connecticut College, crossing the finish line in 22:21.3 for 78th overall. Other regular season highlights for Beaudoin included a runner-up showing at Plattsburgh (5K – 19:07.2) and a top-10 showing at Hoffmann (9th, 6K – 23:32.5).
RPI is on the hunt for its first conference title since 2019 after a third-place finish in 2025. The Engineers are led by Ava Handel, who garnered All-Liberty League Honorable Mention accolades last year; she was 20th overall and finished the race in 23:37.2. This season, she was a team-best eighth at the Engineers’ own Fairgrounds Showdown meet with a time of 21:40.1. Fran Mavricos and Erin vonHousen add depth to the RPI lineup after finishing among the top 35 at the 2025 championship. Mavricos finished 22nd in 23:45.8, while vonHousen was 32nd with a time of 24:02.6. vonHousen topped the Engineers in two races this season (Trinity’s George Suitor Invitational, Pre-National Invitational), and Mavricos was the team’s top runner at SUNY Geneseo’s Mike Woods Invitational. At Trinity, vonHousen was fifth in the 5K race with a time of 18:34.3, and at the Pre-National Invitational (6K), she recorded a time of 22:41.6 for 74th out of 388 runners. She was also 15th at the Fairgrounds Showdown with a season-best 6K time of 21:53.6. Mavricos posted a 29th-place finish at Geneseo, clocking a time of 23:09.0, and she finished among the top 20 at the Fairgrounds Showdown (19th, 22:05.8).
All-Liberty League Honorable Mention honoree Hannah Pawlowski highlights
Ithaca’s returning runners at the 2026 championship. Pawlowski finished 18th with a time of 23:27.8 last year. Pawlowski placed 18th last year with a time of 23:27.8 and has been the Bombers’ top performer this season. She recorded a season-best 6K time of 23:05.7 to close out the regular season at SUNY Geneseo’s Mike Woods Invitational, placing 27th. Pawlowski also posted a pair of top-12 finishes, taking fourth at Fredonia (23:08.8) and 11th at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational (22:50.3). Erika Doran also returns to the championship after finishing among the league’s top 50 last year, 49th in 25:07.1. She recorded her season-best 6K time of 24:43.8 at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational, finishing 71st among 208 competitors, and most recently clocked 25:03.7 at Geneseo to place 87th.
Other key runners to watch at this year’s championship….
RIT will look to improve its fifth-place showing from last year, and the Tigers are paced by senior Kathryn Arbegast. Arbegast placed third at the 2025 Liberty League Championship in 22:20. This year, she won four of five races and placed second at SUNY Geneseo’s Mike Woods Invitational. She recorded a career-best 6K time of 20:49.2 at the Houghton Highlander Invitational on October 10 and finished the regular season with a time of 21:45.4 at Geneseo.
Union senior Annabel Dobash will look to improve upon her 23rd-place finish at the 2025 championship, where she clocked 23:46.0. Dobash has led the Garnet Chargers in all five races this season, recording three top-12 finishes, including a 12th-place showing at the RPI Fairgrounds Showdown in 21:46.7. A pair of
William Smith first-years in Evie Morris and Vienna Ritter-Yelle are poised to make some noise at their first conference championship. Ritter-Yelle was the individual champion at the SUNY Poly Invitational (24:48.5) and the Warner-Fleury Invitational (24:33.6). Morris only trailed Ritter-Yelle by six seconds at Warner-Fleury to finish runner-up with a time of 24:39.5. She paced the Herons at the Houghton Highlander Invitational, crossing the finish line in 23:33.0 for 13th while Ritter-Yelle was 22nd with a time of 23:54.6.
Clarkson senior Alexandra Simon has been the Golden Knights’ top performer in 2026, leading the team in four races after not competing at last year’s championship. Most recently, Simon placed third at William Smith’s Warner-Fleury Invitational in 24:43.4 and finished 14th at the Hamilton Invitational in 24:56.8. Host
Bard is highlighted by first-year Luca Foty, who is coming off back-to-back top-15 finishes at the Hamilton Invitational (12th, 24:50.7) and Western New England Invitational (12th, 24:22.7).