NO. DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Brandeis men's and women's cross country teams each had outstanding performances today at the UMass Dartmouth Invitational. The Judge men placed third out of 35 teams, while the Brandeis women were fifth out of 38 squads.
The men had their best finish at the UMass Dartmouth meet since 2011, when they placed second overall. They were only five points behind WPI for second place (100-105), with Division II Franklin Pierce winning the race with 50 points. The Judges had five runners among the top 33.
As they were for much of last season, Brandeis was paced by senior Jarret Harrigan (Ipswich, Mass./St. Johns Prep). Harrigan finished 11th out of 255 runners. He covered the five-mile course in 25:26.66, a good 55 seconds faster than in 2013, allowing him to improve by 10 places. About 20 seconds behind Harrigan was sophomore Quinton Hoey (Watertown, Conn./Watertown). Hoey's time of 25:46.72 was good for 15th place, a 26-second and seven-spot improvement.
In his second collegiate race, rookie Ryan Stender (Amherst, Mass./Amherst) took 19th place with a time of 25:49.85. Sophomore Matt Doran (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale) shaved nearly a minute and 20 seconds off his time from his rookie season, running 25:58.65 and moving up 14 places to 27th. Rounding out the team's scorers was junior Grady Ward (Essex Junction, Vt./Essex), who came in 33rd with a time of 26:06.44, the fastest collegiate five-mile race of his career by 19 seconds. Rookies Liam Garvey (W. Springfield, Mass./W. Springfield) and Brian Sheppard (Whitman, Mass./Whitman Hanson) rounded out the varsity squad by placing 47th and 78th, respectively.
The Judges also got a fine performance in the sub-varsity race, where senior Greg Bray (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) was the winner by a bit more than two seconds with a time of 26:20.50.
The women were paced by sophomore Maddie Dolins (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park). After placing
fifth in her rookie campaign, Dolins finished fourth overall out of 272 runners in 2014. She covered the five-kilometer course in 18:03.10. She was second among Division III – runners competitors from Division II East Stroudsberg took first and third in the race – and improved her time by more than half a minute over last season.
Brandeis junior Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.) placed 23rd, three spots below her standing as a sophomore, but her time of 18:52.42 was also around 30 seconds better than her previous performance at the meet. Sophomore Lydia McCaleb (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) was the Judges' third runner in her second career meet in the Blue and White. She placed 37th overall with a time of 19:18.48.
Sophomore Ashley Piccirillo-Horan (North Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial) ran fourth for Brandeis in 53rd place with a time of 19:36.47, while rookie Kyra Shreeve (Northborough, Mass./Algonquin Regional) rounded out the top five in 63rd place with a time of 19:41.85. Junior Molly Paris (Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth) was 110th in 20:27.19, while classmate Maggie Hensel (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) was 169th about a minute behind.
The Judges' 180 points were third-best among DIII schools, 37 behind Connecticut College and only 14 behind Division I Holy Cross.