St. Lawrence University senior Wendy Pavlus will be in pursuit of her second straight NCAA Division III indoor championship and her fourth straight national title overall when she runs in the NCAA Division III Championships at Capital University in Columbus, OH on Saturday.

Pavlus is the defending champion at 5000 meters indoors and has won back-to-back NCAA Division III cross country individual titles. She qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships last spring in the 1500, 3000 steeplechase, 5000 and 10,000, but did not compete due to a conflict with an opportunity to study abroad.

The Saint senior was named the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Indoor Track Women's Track Athlete of the Year for her performance thus far in the indoor season. She also won the outdoor award last fall and is a two-time USTFCCCA Woman of the Year in Division III cross country. She is a multi-event All America in track and holds SLU records in five individual events and two relays.

She will run early Saturday evening and is the favorite to win the race after running the best time in the nation this season in winning the 5000 meter championship at the ECAC Championships last weekend. Her qualifying time of 16:57.71 (converted from an actual race time of 16:54.71 on a banked track) is nearly four seconds faster  than Liz Lawton of the University of Chicago, who was the second fastest qualifier at 17:01.12.

Saint Director of Track and Field Mike Howard expects a good performance from Pavlus, but also expects it to be a challenge.

"Although Wendy will most likely be considered the prohibitive favorite going in, this may be the toughest Indoor 5k field ever assembled for the DIII Championships with seven  automatic qualifiers, the returning 5K and 10K NCAA Outdoor Champion(Liz Lawton from the University of Chicago)who is currently ranked second in the country as well as multiple conference champions so it promises to be a great race.  A slight shift in her training during the early season to accommodate her participation in the USA Cross-Country Championships certainly kept her under the national radar for much of the season but after last week's record setting race at the ECAC's she certainly sent a strong message to the rest of the country that she's ready to run fast in Ohio."