On Saturday, Sept. 3, your Brandeis women’s and men’s cross-country teams kicked off their respective seasons, coming out strong at the Emmanuel Fens Classic. The women’s team is ranked 33rd in the country, and in achieving a perfect score won The Classic for the third year in a row. The men also took their third straight win. The women’s team took the first five finishing spots, with All-American Athlete Emily Bryson ’19 smashing the previous course record by 37 seconds, with a time of 11:09 on the two-mile course. Kate Farrell ’17 came in second with a time of 11:31, while Emily’s twin sister Julia Bryson ’19 placed third with a time of 12:01. Meaghan Barry ’19 was fourth with a time of 12:25, and Ashley Piccirillo-Horan ’17 ran the course in 12:28, securing fifth place. Danielle Berteaux ’20 and Christine Minor ’19 received seventh and ninth place, respectively, with times of 12:36 and 12:40.
The men’s cross-country team also competed in the Emmanuel Fens Classic, taking the top four spots, as well as sixth place, to finish with 16 points on the five-kilometer course. Brandeis’ juniors took control of the meet as they nabbed the top four spots. Mitchell Hutton ’18 won the meet with a time of 15:53. Liam Garvey ’18 came in second with a time of 16:10, with Brain Sheppard ’18 right behind him with a time of 16:17. Russell Santos ’18 took fourth with a time of 16:19, while Eli Waxler ’19 finished in sixth with a final time of 16:26. Brad Payne ’17 took eighth and Sam Reich ’20 took 11th with times of 16:39 and 16:55, respectively.
The Judges were back in action on Saturday, Sept. 17 at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational, when the women took their second straight win of the season. The Brandeis women’s team defended their crown, earning a total of 99 points in a field of 37 teams and 275 runners. E. Bryson was the team’s top runner, finishing in third with a time of 17:50.83 for the five-kilometer course. Farrell took eighth with a time of 18:28.66, dropping 22 seconds from her previous time on this particular course. J. Bryson took ninth with a time of 18:30.74. The Judges had an average time of 18:42.02, a notable 14 seconds faster than Stonehill, the second place school.
The men finished fifth overall, out of 33 teams, including two of the top four teams in Division II. This race marked Garvey’s first time as Brandeis’ top finisher, as he ran the eight-kilometer course in 25:36.20. Santos ran his first varsity race at UMass Dartmouth with a time of 27:04.08, a 22-second improvement over his JV time in 2014. Brandeis also had six runners in the sub-varsity race, coming in third out of the 14 teams present at the meet, ending with 104 points.
The Judges will hit the track again on Saturday, Oct. 8 at the James Early Invitational in Westfield, MA. They then will compete at the Connecticut College Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 15.
