On Sep. 3, both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams participated in the Wellesley Invitational to start off the season. The women’s team finished in first place and the men’s team finished in second place.
The women’s team had 33 points and beat out Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Wellesley College, Mount Holyoke and Regis College. Overall, the team had an average 5k time of 19:07, which was 13 seconds faster than the second-place team WPI. Senior Niamh Kenny ’22 led the way for Brandeis, as she finished in second place overall with a time of 18:35.5 and an average mile time of 5:59. She was behind first place by five seconds. In third place, senior Erin Magill ’22 finished with a time of 18:44.7. Magill finished 15 seconds in front of fourth place. Senior Natalie Hattan ’22 came in fifth place to solidify three of the top five runners for Brandeis. Out of the top 20 runners that came from five different schools, Brandeis had seven of those top 20 runners. First-years Kayla DiBenedetto ’25 and Zada Forde ’25 both finished in the top 20 in their first competitions with Brandeis. DiBenedetto ran a 19:36.1 and Forde ran a 19:56.6. Overall, the women’s cross-country team finished with an average time of 19:07, which was thirteen seconds faster than second place.
The men’s team finished in a solid second place with 45 points as they beat Regis College but fell to WPI. In the men’s 5k, senior Matthew Dribben ’22 placed fourth overall for the Judges with a time 16:11.2. He came just four seconds from a top three finish. Sophomore Walter Tebetts ’24 also finished in the top ten with a time of 16:42.6. Freshman Daniel Frost ’25 competed for the first time for Brandeis and finished third overall for Brandeis and 11th overall. He missed out on a top 10 position by just two seconds. Lucas Dia ’25 and Erik Lopez ’25 were two other Brandeis first-years that ran in this competition. They proceeded to finish in 18th and 19th place. That makes three first-years in the top 20 runners overall for Brandeis. The Judges had eight runners in the top 20. However, WPI ran very well that day as they took eight top 10 positions. Additionally, WPI took the other 12 top 20 positions. Overall, the Judges had an average time of 16:51, which was 42 seconds behind WPI.
Both teams will take their success and use it as momentum for their next competition at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational on Sep. 18.
