The women’s and men’s cross country teams took the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Cross Country meet by storm, placing third and second respectively. The women’s cross country team is currently ranked #34 and the men’s team is currently ranked #33 in the Division III NCAA. The Judges put three runners among the top 15 runners and four in the top 25.
The women’s team faced off against 40 other schools in the first meet of the year at the UMass Dartmouth Shriners Invitational. Emily Bryson ’19 finished second and earned the UAA Runner of the Week title for her performance. Her twin sister Julia Bryson ’19 also gave a strong performance, finishing eighth overall. Emily has improved one place each year she has run in the UMass Dartmouth Cross Country meet. As a rookie, she placed fourth and third her second year with a final time of 18:02.18, trailing the winning time by only nine seconds. Julia Bryson has also improved one place since the 2016 season with a finishing time of 18:46.36.
Danielle Bertaux ’20 improved her overall finish from 29th in the 2016 season to 13th and second for the team with a time of 18:58.26. Meaghan Barry ’19 improved from her 50th place finish in the 2016 season to 22nd this year with a final time of 19:13.85. Doyin Ogundiran ’19, who specializes in the 800-meter race, was the team’s fifth-place runner, finishing 55th overall. This was her first time running in the varsity race at UMass Dartmouth Cross Country. She improved her time by 30 seconds from her previous best, finishing the course at 19:45.47. Next, the women will run at the Keene State College Invitational on Sept. 30 for their second meet of the season.
The men’s team finished second competing against 40 other schools as well. Ryan Stender ’18 placed second overall in the 8K with a time of 25:24.27, putting him only two seconds away from the first place runner. He improved his place by two from his race at the UMass Dartmouth Cross Country meet in 2016. Mitchell Hutton ’19 took sixth with a time of 25:32.15, improving from his previous finish at 13th when he ran at the meet in 2015. The next three runners finished in the top 35 runners of the race.
Max Whitmore ’18 came back strong from his junior year abroad with a 34th overall finish at a time of 26:22.03. Luke Ostrander ’21 finished 10th overall with a time of 25:43.90. Classmate Mark Murdy finished 35th in the meet with a time of 26:22.95. The men have their next meet at Keene State College for the Keene State College Invitational on the Sept. 30
Sinead Delahunty Evans, the head coach, said, “Overall, I am really pleased with the day. These early season races give a good benchmark as to where we are at in our training, so I am really pleased with the direction we are going,” in an interview for the Brandeis athletics website.
The Judges will compete in one month in the UAA Championships at Garret Mountain Reservation in Woodland Park, NJ. They will round off their season in November for the NCAA New England Regional Championships and qualifying runners will finish at the NCAA Division III Championships in Elsa, Illinois.
