DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- In their first races of the season, seniors Ryan Stender (Amherst, Mass./Amherst) and Mitchell Hutton (Villa Park, Cal./Villa Park) were outstanding as the #33-ranked Brandeis men's cross country team finished second out of 40 teams at the UMass Dartmouth Shriners Invitational.
Stender was second over the 8K course with a time of 25:24.27, just two seconds off the winning time. He was fourth overall last year. Hutton took sixth overall with a time of 25:32.15. He was 13th in his previous appearance at UMD in 2015.
The Judges' next three runners all placed within the top 35. Rookie Luke Ostrander (Tacoma, Wash. / Bellarmine Prep) was 10th overall in his second varsity race with a time of 25:43.90. Senior Max Whitmore (Wayne, N.J. / Newark Acad.), back after a year abroad, was 34th overall, while a second rookie, Mark Murdy (Plantsville, Conn. / Southington), rounded out the Brandeis scorers in 35th place. Whitmore and Murdy ran 26:22.03 and 26:22.95, respectively.
"Overall I am really pleased with the day," said head coach Sinead Delahunty Evans. "These early season races give a good benchmark as to where we are at in our training, so I really pleased with the direction we are going."