WESTFIELD, Mass. The Brandeis cross country teams competed at the 2012 Open New England championships at Westfield State University over the weekend. The men finished in 29th place overall out of 39 teams, ninth in Division III, while the women were 27th out of 37 overall and sixth in Division III.
On the women's side, junior Victoria Sanford (LaGrangeville, N.Y./Arlington) was the top performer, coming in 89th out of 251 runners with a time of 18:50.04 for the 5K course. Sanford was 20th among Division III runners. Brandeis's second finisher was Sanford's classmate Ali Kirsch (Sharon, Mass./Sharon), who came in 107th with a time of 19:03.06. A third junior, Amelia Lundkvist (So. Portland, Maine/Cheverus), came in 146th with a time of 19:27.46.
A pair of rookies rounded out the top five for the Judges, with Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.) placing 160th in 19:39.10 and Maggie Hensel (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) taking 176th in 19:51.01. The Judges' 678 points put them just 16 behind UMass Amherst.
The Judges' top performance of the day came on the men's side, where senior captain Alex Kramer (No. Andover, Mass./No. Andover) placed 51st overall out of 261 runners, 12thamong Division III competitord. He posted a time of 25:33.66 over the 8K course. Kramer's co-captain, Mik Kern (Groton, N.Y./Groton), was the next runner in 143rd place with a time of 26:18.04.
Junior Taylor Dundas (Bath, Maine/Bath) and sophomore Greg Bray (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) finished together in 185th and 186th, in 26:54.89 and 26:55.22, respectively. Sophomore Michael Rosenbach (Tampa, Fla./Berkley Prep) rounded out the Judges' top five in 27:03.29, good for 195th. With 760 points, the Judges edged Division I Rhode Island by one point.
The Judges are off until the University Athletic Association championships at the University of Rochester on Oct. 27.