ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- At the 2012 University Athletic Association Women's Cross Country championships held at the University of Rochester, Brandeis junior Victoria Sanford (LaGrangeville, N.Y./Arlington) was the team's top finisher of the day.
She covered the six-kilometer course in 23:01.2 to finish in 21st place out of 77 competitors. Sanford – the team's fourth finisher a year ago - took more than two full minutes better than her 2011 time at UAAs to improve by 40 places. She finished around 11 seconds shy of finishing in the top 14 to earn All-UAA honors.
Classmate Amelia Lundkvist (So. Portland, Maine/Cheverus) was the team's second finisher. Unable to compete at UAAs last year and the squad's seventh finisher as a freshman, Lundkvist came in 29th with a time of 23:14.6. A third junior, Ali Kirsch (Sharon, Mass./Sharon), who was the top returning UAA performer for the Judges, placed 43rd. That was down four spots from last year, when she was also the team's third finisher, despite improving her time by more than two-and-a-half minutes.
Rookie Maggie Hensel (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) was Brandeis's fifth finisher, coming in 58th in her first collegiate championship meet with a time of 24:22.3. Graduate student Erin Bisceglia (Durham, Conn./Coginchaug) was Brandeis's fifth scoring runner with a time of 24:55.6, good for 65th place.
Both Brandeis teams finished in eighth place at an ultra-competitive meet that featured six of the eight men's teams and five the eight women's squads among the top 35 programs in Division III. The men's 186 points placed them 30 behind seventh-place Emory, while the women's 193 points trailed Emory by 66 points.
Brandeis's next meet is the NCAA Division III New England regional championship, which will be held Nov. 10 at Westfield State University.
2012 UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Held at Rochester, N.Y. (University of Rochester)
TEAM SCORES
WOMEN
1) U. of Chicago 37
2) NYU 96
3) Carnegie Mellon 103
4) Washington Univ. 105
5) Case Western Reserve 121
6) U. of Rochester 122
7) Emory 127
8) BRANDEIS 193