After finishing in first place last year at the Keene State Invitational, the Brandeis women’s cross country maintained their streak and finished in first place in this year’s invitational on Oct. 1. The team overall finished with 40 points and an average 5k time of 18:59.50. On the men’s side, the team finished in third place after placing second last year. They had 88 overall points with an average five-mile time of 26:27.39. Overall, the two teams played very well in their third competition of the season.
The women’s team was led by senior captain Bridget Pickard ’23 as she finished in second place overall. Her 5k time was 18:31.62 and was a new career best in the 5k by seven seconds. Junior Juliette Intrieri ’24 was not far behind Pickard with a time of 18:37.36. She finished in third place in the competition and set a new career-best 5k by four seconds. Just behind her was junior Lizzy Reynolds ’24 with a time of 18:40.30. She placed fifth overall for her best placement of the season and set a new personal record by 33 seconds. Sophomore Zada Forde ’25 was the next Judge to finish. In 13th place, she had a time of 19:26.08 which was also a career-best by nine seconds. Junior Katie Lyon ’24 rounded out the top five with a time of 19:42.14. She finished 16th overall and broke 20 minutes for the first time as she set a new personal best by 28 seconds. Sophomore Kyra Au ’25 finished shortly after in 22nd place with a time of 19:57.86. She set a new career best in the 5k by breaking the 20-minute mark for the first time. The next Judge to finish was first-year Calli Morvay ’26 with a time of 20:45.82 in 38th place. It was a new career best in the 5k for Morvay. Junior Adah Anderson ’24 was next in 42nd place with a time of 21:06.97.
The men’s team was led by senior Matthew Dribben ’23 who finished in first place overall. His 24:53.28 was his first time breaking 25 minutes in the five mile, as he beat his career best by 11 seconds. The next Judge to finish was sophomore Lucas Dia ’25 with a time of 26:19.75. He finished 12th overall and shaved almost an entire minute off of his previous career best time. Sophomore Dashiell Janicki ’25 finished shortly after with a time of 26:40.39 in 21st place. Compared to his time from last year at the invitational, Janicki took over two minutes off of his time. Junior Samuel Kim ’24 came in 24th place with a time of 26:56.47. He also improved his time from last season, with more than a minute decrease in time. A short while later, junior Henry Nguyen ’24 finished 31st with a time of 27:27.07 to round out the top five for Brandeis. Senior Taylor Diamond ’23 finished in 70th in 30:09.82 to improve his season best in the five miles by 53 seconds.
Both teams will have their next competition on Oct. 15 at the Connecticut College Invitational. This will be their last competition before the University Athletic Association Championships in Atlanta on Oct. 29.
Editor-in-Chief Victoria Morrongiello ’23 is a captain of the women’s cross country team and did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.
