On Nov. 2, the Brandeis men’s and women’s cross country teams participated in the University Athletic Association championships hosted by Carnegie Mellon University at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, PA. Niamh Kenney ’21 led the women’s team to a seventh-place overall finish, and for a second year in a row, Josh Lombardo ’21 led the men’s team as they finished ninth overall in the meet. 

 

Women’s Squad

The women Judges finished with 161 points, just one point behind Case Western Reserve University in sixth place and 13 points ahead of eighth place New York University. Kenney had her best ever performance at the UAA Championships, finishing 17th overall with a time of 22:40.39. This was a 17-second improvement over her UAA time last year, when she came in 19th overall. Kenney just missed a top 14 finish and first career All-Association honor in cross country by about four seconds. Danielle Bertaux ’20 was the team's second best runner, coming in 22nd with a time of 22:50.49. Bertaux was three seconds and five places off her 2018 career best. Running third best for the Judges was Erin Magill ’22, who placed 33rd overall with a time of 23:09.17. Magill cut 1:19 off her rookie performance at UAAs to improve by 30 places. Last year, she was the team's eighth finisher as a rookie compared to this year’s third place finisher. Andrea Bolduc ’21 also had her best career UAA performance, finishing 47th with a time of 23:33.80. Bolduc improved by one full minute, moving up 17 places in the standings from last year. Hannah Walsh ’22 made her UAA debut and placed 64th overall with a time of 24:35.67 to round out the Brandeis scorers. Magill, Bolduc and Walsh all ran collegiate-best performances for six kilometers. Bridget Pickard ’23 and Leinni Valdez ’21 completed the Judge’s top seven finishers.

 

Men’s Squad

The men Judges finished with 232 points — 43 points behind eighth place New York University. Lombardo cut 55 seconds off his previous best performance at the meet, but the competition was so fierce that he dropped four spots in the ranking to 44th. Lombardo finished the eight-kilometer course in 26:06.7 and was less than two seconds out of repeating his previous career best at UAAs, last year’s 40th place finish. Matthew Driben ’22 came in 50th overall with a time of 26:19.81. Driben improved by a minute and 45 seconds and 15 places in the standings over his rookie season. Driben also edged out Mark Murdy ’21 who placed 51st and was 0.65 of a second behind in 26:20.46. Murdy dropped seven places from his rookie season, after missing last year to injury, but improved his UAA time by 1:23 over his inaugural run. Dan Curley ’20 ran 27:22.25 in his final UAA cross country race, breaking 28 minutes for the first time and placing 65th, three spots better than a year ago. Casey Brackett ’23 rounded out the top five runners for the Judges, placing 69th with a time of 27:40.28. A trio of seniors completed the field for the Judges in their final UAA cross country races, Alec Rogers ’20, Brian Gao ’20 and Jacob Judd ’20. 

The Judges will continue their season on Nov. 16 at the 2019 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III New England Regionals at Bowdoin College in Maine.