While St. Lawrence University's women's cross country team will make its sixth straight NCAA Division III national championship team appearance at Hanover, IN on Saturday, it will be a new experience for all but three of the Saints' seven runners who will compete in the championship.

"We knew coming into the season we had a lot of shoes to fill from last year's team," said Saint coach Mike Howard, whose team cracked the top ten in the national polls, coming in at ninth after a second place finish in the NCAA Atlantic Regional last weekend. "We graduated some exceptional runners and had an injury or two along the way, so it was a rebuilding year for us. We knew we had talented returnees in Amy Cymerman and Ariel Beccia, but the level of our success depended on the development of some of our younger competitors."

And while few think of seniors as young, two seniors who will be part of the Saints' travel squad for the championship are among those who will experience national championship level competition for the first time. "Toria Koutras has not been part of the national championship prior to this year and junior Anna Rabideau is in the same position," Howard said.

The Saints, who join the men's team as one of only six programs nationally to have both teams qualify for NCAA championship competition in each of the last six years, has good depth and Howard will have some choices to make when the team gets ready to start Saturday's race.

"Our top four is pretty set, but from there we have been getting our fifth finisher from three different runners," Howard said. Koutras, Kelsey Leder, Melanie Swick and Anna Rabideau have all come through with key performances for the Saints during the past season, making Howard's problem of choosing the seven to run in the national race a good one to have.

Beccia and Cymerman are veterans of national competition, with Cymerman making her fourth NCAA appearance and Beccia her second straight. Leder ran in the NCAA championships in her first season with the team and junior Anne Martino, the Saints regular fourth runner during the season, will also run in her second straight NCAA meet.

Beccia and Cymerman each were named USTFCCA National Runner of the Week during the past season with Beccia posting two firsts among five top three finishes. She was the Saints' top runner in four races while Cymerman had a win, two seconds and three thirds this season and was the top Saint finisher in each of the championship races…NYSCTC, Liberty League and Atlantic Regional. First year Lisa Grohn, a four-time winner of Liberty League Rookie of the Week honors, has been the third finisher for the Saints in each of the last two races and a consistent top five finisher while Martino has three top tens and has been a regular scorer in the four or five position.

Koutras has two top tens and has been a scorer in three races while Leder has three scoring finishes in six starts. Rabideau was the fifth Saint finisher in the Liberty League championship and has been in the Saint top seven four times while Swick has finished in the Saint top seven in six straight races.

Cymerman, Beccia, Grohn and Martino were named to the USTFCCA Atlantic Region All Regional team based on their finishes in the regional championship race.

"It is kind of a unique situation for us in that all eight runners have scored as one of the top five in a major championship race, which is unlike any of the past few teams," said Howard.

"I have confidence in the team's ability to do well on the national stage. Although we haven't run against some of the top out of region competition, NYU and Geneseo have and have done well. We were right with NYU and beat Geneseo at the regional, so that tells us we have a chance for a very good finish.

"Our goals were to win Liberty League, win states and record a top ten finish at nationals. We have gained confidence as the season has progressed and we are sticking to our script as to what we want to accomplish," Howard added.