The Brandeis cross country teams raced out to strong starts over the weekend, including a record-breaking performance from Ed Colvin '14 in the Fens Classic at Emmanuel College on Sunday. The women also bested the University of Southern Maine on Friday in their first meet of the year.

Colvin's time of 16 minutes, four seconds in the five-kilometer race was a new course record. His teammate, Jarret Harrigan '15, finished 12 seconds behind him for a second place finish.

The Fens Classic wasn't easily navigable, however. Colvin said he lost his way by the end of the race, set in the Fenway area of Boston. "I had to stop and ask where to go," continued Colvin. "I turned around and asked Harrigan, who was just few seconds behind me. We were far ahead of the rest at that point so we just took it easy after that."

Two more Brandeis runners finished in the top 10 of the event, comprised of 63 competitors from eight different schools. Daniel Leon '17 and Matt Doran '17 came in ninth and 10th place, respectively, finishing one second apart at 17:04 and 17:05. Michael Rosenbach '15 finished 14th at 17:16 while Liban Aden '16 was the 36th athlete to cross the finish line at 18:04.

The Judges' performance resulted in 36 points, putting them first.

"We're a young team, a small team too," said Colvin. "It's good for us to have something to build from. We have three weeks before our next meet."

Meanwhile, women's co-captain Victoria Sanford '14 finished first in a tempo-paced four-kilometer race with a time of 16:42 at Southern Maine to lead the Judges to a 43-20 win over the Huskies. Three Judges crossed the finish line right after Sanford-Maddie Dolins '17, Kelsey Whitaker '16, and co-captain Amelia Lundkvist '14, all of whom finished in 16:43.

Sanford, Dollins, and their teammates had less trouble navigating their course. According to Sanford, the course is the same one that will be used for the New England Division III Regionals, the qualifier for the NCAA Division III Nationals, in November.

"The course is really cool," she said. "It consists of three loops, which are [individually] about 1.3 kilometers. It is nice to be familiar [with] the course we're going to run at regionals."
The men's and women's cross country teams will next compete on Sept. 21, running at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.