On Saturday the men and women’s cross country teams turned in strong showings at the Open New England Championships in Franklin Park, located in downtown Boston, competing against runners from across all three NCAA Divisions. 

The 22nd-ranked women’s squad earned their first ranking in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll since the beginning of the 2014 season before the race, and responded with a third-place finish among Division III schools at the meet, good for 17th out of the 39 teams overall. The men’s squad, ranked ninth regionally, finished seventh from DIII schools and 28th out of 38 total teams.

Women’s squad (428 points- 17th overall)

The women raced to a third-place finish among all DIII schools Saturday on the back of a 27th-place finish for Emily Bryson ’19, who covered the five-kilometer course in 18 minutes, 22.6 seconds. 

Saturday marked the third-straight race Bryson has paced the Judges, and turned in Brandeis’s best finish since Grayce Selig ’11 took seventh in 2010. 

Maddie Dolins ’17 crossed the line at the 18:30.4 mark, good for 39th overall out of 265 runners and sixth out of DIII competitors. 

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 took 17th of DIII runners with a 19:05.7 run, while Lydia McCaleb ’16 earned 22nd among DIII competitors by stopping the clock at the 19.19.9. 

Julia Bryson ’19 and Molly Paris ’17 rounded out the Judges’ competitors, clocking in at 19:31.9 and 21:34.3, respectively, for the team. 

Brandeis finished third to a pair of top-10 DIII programs as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked No. 4, took first, while the No. 7 Middlebury College finished in second place. 

The Judges managed to outpace both No. 15 Amherst College and No. 31 Wellesley College with its times.

Men’s squad (689 points- 28th overall)

Ryan Stender ’18, who traversed the eight-kilometer course in 25:56.8, once again paced the Judges, his third-straight week finishing first for the squad. 

Stender’s time placed him 89th out of 252 runners and 22nd among all DIII runners at the meet. 

He was followed by Matt Doran ’17, whose time of 26:32.4 earned him a 33rd-place finish among DIII runners. Liam Garvey ’18 took 35th-place of DIII runners, clocking in at 26:34.2, his first top-five finish among the squad this season. 

Roger Lacroix ’18 was a step behind Garvey, stopping the clock at the 26:43.9 mark, while Brian Sheppard ’18 ran the course in 26:47.3. The Judges also saw Brad Payne ’17 race to a 28:38.1 finish and Russell Santos ’18 earn a 28.51.4 finish.

Once again a group of sophomores led the Judges.

On Sep. 19 Stender, Hutton and Sheppard all finished in the top 30.

At that meet at the University of Massachusetts, Stender took fourth overall while Hutton and Sheppard finished in 13th and 26th, respectively, for the squad.

Most impressive about this meet was the fact that the Judges were able to hold their own against Division I competitors from around the New England area.

These teams included Boston University, the University of Maine and Dartmouth College.

Both squads will travel to Connecticut College this weekend for the Connecticut College Invitational, where the men took eighth place and the women finished in sixth during last year’s meet. 

The Judges will then take a break before hosting the University Athletic Association Championships on Oct. 31 in Franklin Park.

At that meet will be all eight of the member schools that make up the UAA conference.

Brandeis will be joined at the competition by Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University, the University of Chicago, the University of Rochester and Washington University in St. Louis.

Last year, the conference championship took place at WashU.

The Judges ended up finishing in last place as the hometown Bears took home the crown.

The squad will be up to a tough task to defend its homefield advantage against defending champion WashU, as well as top teams Carnegie, Chicago and NYU.

In the race last year, Stender was able to obtain a 35th-place finish out of 78 competitors to lead the Judges.

Hutton earned a 47th place finish while Garvey finished in 67th.

Stender will need strong finishes in the UAA meet and the rest of the season as a whole as he attempts to make the National Division III Cross Country Championship.

No member of the men’s team qualified last year as they struggled through a difficult season. Whitaker earned a spot for the women’s side.