The men and women’s track and field teams continued their seasons at the Tufts Winter Invitational at Tufts University this past Saturday, where the men finished 10th out of 14 teams while the women ended in 13th out of 15.  

The men’s 10th-place finish came from garnering 26 points, three behind Merrimack College and one ahead of the University of Massachusetts Boston. 

The women’s squad scored 14 points on the day, which left it 13 and a half behind Bridgewater State University and four ahead of Mount Holyoke College. 

Mohamed Sidique ’15 contributed 15 of the team’s 26 overall points by himself. 

In his season debut in the triple jump—an event that has earned him two University Athletic Association titles and an All-American honor—Sidique earned a second-place finish with a solid distance of 13.16 meters.

 Adam Berger ’16 also competed in the same event, finishing in sixth place with a total distance of 12.64 meters. 

Sidique also competed in the 600-meter race where he ended with a time of one minute 24.41 seconds, good enough for third place. He added an eighth-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 12.64 meters. 

Jarret Harrigan ’15 said that the team was positive entering the day.

“Going into the meet, I would describe the team's attitude as ‘confident,” he said. 

“This meet had teams that we were going to see a lot throughout the rest of the season, and we were excited to see our hard work over the winter break would pay off.”

The team’s best collective performance came in the 3,000-meter run where four runners finished in the top-15. 

Mitchell Hutton ’18 and Harrigan placed in sixth and seventh for the squad, respectively. 

Liam Garvey ’18 and Brian Sheppard ’18 rounded out the competitors for the Judges with 11th and 15th-place finishes. 

The squad also fared well in the one-mile run, with Ryan Stender ’18 finishing in 7th in a time of 4:29.19. Greg Bray ’15 ran a time of 4:35.56,which earned him a 14th- place finish. 

In the 1,000 meter-run, Max Whitmore ’18 and Roger LaCroix ’18 earned top-15 finishes with Whitmore in 12th and LaCroix in 15th. Whitmore ran the race in 2:40.15 while LaCroix was barely behind with a time of 2:41.82. 

Brad Payne ’17 also competed in the race and earned a 21st-place finish with a time of 2:47.06.

The meet was successful in the team’s eyes. 

Harrigan commented, “The day was overall a solid effort. Almost everyone was happy with their effort and were hungry for more.”

The woman also gave strong performances in the 1,000-meter run. Kelsey Whitaker ’16 ran a time of 3:01.32 to win the race, her first of the season. 

Her time was more than two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Teammate Ashley Piccirilo-Horan ’17 placed fifth in the race with a time of 3:07.70, missing out on fourth place by half a second. 

Kyra Shreeve ’18 also participated in the race and secured ninth place with a time of 3:11.16. 

In the 200-meter run, Haliana Burhans ’18 earned a ninth-place finish with a time of 27.19. 

Burhans also ran in the 400-meter, where she ran the race in 1:04.44 for 10th place. 

The Judges held their own in the longer-distance events as well. Maggie Hensel ’16, the only Brandeis competitor in the one-mile run, ran a mile time of 5:35.65 for 16th place. 

In the 3,000-meter run, Lydia McCaleb ’17 and Kate Farrell ’17 finsihed in the 10th and 11th places for the Judges, respectively. 

McCaleb ran the race with a time of 10:46.03, and Farrell finished in 10:47.87. 

Two competitors from the women's side also participated in the shot put event. 

Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 finished in 27th place with a shot put distance of 9.00 meters. 

Teammate Ashley Klein ’16 ended in 37th place with a total distance of 7.48 meters.

Beth Deffossez competed in the pole vault but failed to place. 

The squad is hoping to build off of the positive momentum garnered from the meet. 

Harrigan said, “We are going to do some special things this winter. The heart of the season is still a couple weeks away, and the team seems to understand that... Looking further down the road, this is a young team... It is exciting to think of the potential of this program, not just this winter but also in the coming years.”

The Judges will compete again next Saturday at the Smith Invitational at Smith College starting at 9 a.m. 

The team will then be at Boston University on Jan. 30 and 31 for the Terrier Classic.