Division III athletes at St. Lawrence University will soon receive a huge upgrade in their athletic facilities. Appleton Arena Karpus Athletic Center will house new locker rooms and spaces for baseball, softball, field hockey, men’s & women’s lacrosse and crew. In addition, all DIII athletes will have a new weight room, training room and athlete lounge.  

DIII athletes at SLU represent around 45 percent of the student body. “Even though times are tough, the fact that St. Lawrence is investing in its division three sports sends a good message to recruits, alumni and students who are involved in sports here,” says Men’s Crew Coach George Repicky. The new facilities help show that SLU DIII athletes are valued. “I think that is important,” adds Repicky.  

The crew team is getting a whole new facility where all their equipment can be centralized, along with a new locker room. “I’m excited. I heard that we are getting new locker rooms, which we don’t have, and we are getting our tanks, ergs and bikes moved into there,” says crew athlete Sabina Axelrod. The crew team has a very peculiar facility set-up with training spaces through multiple different areas of campus. “Honestly, it’ll just be nice because we don’t have windows currently, so it can get really hot,” adds Axelrod.  

The new, albeit costly, facility assists athletes at SLU as well as the St. Lawrence community and the Canton, New York community. “How it assists athletics is twofold. One-fold is gender equity, and the other is sports equity,” says Associate Athletic Director for Operations and External Relations Franco Bari.  

The facility will also have new visiting locker rooms and other areas so that SLU can host local tournaments and have more room for local sports. “Much of the new facility will be open to the community,” emphasizes Bari. Construction started this spring and is continuing right now. “We are hoping and aiming for a goal of completion by September,” adds Bari.  

The project was started late due to some setbacks. “We aren’t stopping. We are going to proceed through the winter. It will be a busy winter, spring and summer, but it will be a push to the end,” says Tim Forsythe, the Super intendent at Bette & Cring Construction Group.  

This new state-of-the-art facility should also help with recruiting. “It’s really helpful that our recruits can come in and see the space and be like, wow, here’s a school that values its crew team and values their athletes,” says Assistant Women’s Crew Coach Ellie Jones.  

Athletes are also excited about the prospect of bringing in new recruits. “I think this new locker room will change the recruiting process and bring in a lot of players who might have some better skill or just had a higher level of field hockey so that we can make our program higher level,” says Field Hockey athlete Mayson Blondek ‘26. Thanks to George W. Karpus and other Laurentians, the new facility should be finished in September 2024.