Brandeis’ cross country team had their final invitational meet of the season at Connecticut College Invitational this past weekend. At a quick glance, the women’s team placed 10th overall of 29 teams, while the men’s placed 22nd of 28 teams.
The men’s team was running an 8K course at this meet. The Judges scored 629 points total, placing them in 22nd. Mark Murdy ’21 was again Brandeis’ top finisher, for the third time of the season. He finished with the time 25:56.2, 17 seconds faster than the last time at this meet. Josh Lombardo ’21, with his first performance of the season, finished second among the Judges with a time of 26:33.3, placing 147th.
Dan Curley ’20 shaved his time at the last Connecticut College meet by 30 seconds for 174th place, with the time of 26:46.0. The two other top five finishers were Matthew Driben ’20 and Brian Gao ’20. Their times were 27:15.8 and 28:17.2, respectively.
Overall, Williams College won the championship, with two top five finishers and the other three finishers all placing among the top 20. MIT came in second and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers placed in third.
Moving towards the recap on the women’s team, they placed 10th among 29 other teams. This time, the Judges ran a 6K track. Brandeis’ top finisher was Danielle Bertaux ’20, leading the team for the second time in a row. She finished the course in 22:41.4, for 48th place. As a highlight, she cut her freshman time at this meet by nearly two minutes.
Niamh Kenney ’21 came six-tenths of a second after Bertaux, finishing at 22:42.0. This is her debut race of the season, with the placement at 50th. Brandeis’ third finisher was Andrea Bolduc ’21, coming one second after Kenney. Her time was 22:43:3, for 53rd place. In addition to that, she ran a minute faster than last year’s time, with an improvement of 38 places.
Erin Magill ’22 finished her personal best 6K at 23:01.9, coming in 67th place of 365 runners. Hannah Walsh ’22 was Brandeis’ last top five finisher at 23:51.2. This is her third time being a top five finisher of the Judges team this season. Moreover, Walsh cut her time from last year’s meet by one minute and 50 seconds, and improved 61 places overall.
In total, the women’s team earned 333 points for 10th place. The winner on the women’s side was team MIT, with four top 20 finishers. Williams College placed second, while Tufts placed third.
The cross country team will return to action at the UAA Championship on Nov. 5th in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University.
