ATLANTA, Ga. -- The Brandeis University men finished in fourth place at the University Athletic Association cross country championships today, improving one spot from their 2007 placement. The Judges scored 102 points and finished behind three nationally-ranked squads (#10 NYU, #6 Carnegie Mellon and #13 Emory) and ahead of 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University. Brandeis put their top-five runners in the top 25 of the meet.

Leading the way for coach John Evans' squad was sophomore Paul Norton (Amherst, Mass.), who narrowly missed All-UAA status by finishing in 15th place. Norton covered the eight-kilometer course in 26:24.14, a similar time to his previous performance at UAAs, but a 16-place improvement. Rookie Marc Boutin (Westford, Mass.) had one of his best collegiate performances, coming in 19th place with a time of 26:36.26. Sophomore Kerwin Vega (Waltham, Mass.) was two seconds behind in 21st place with a time of 26:38.27. Rookie Chris Brown (Chelmsford, Mass.) and sophomore Zach Schwartz (Newtown, Conn.) rounded out the Brandeis scorers in 23rd and 24th place, respectively, with times of 26:41.77 and 26:42.99, giving the Judges a spread of less than 20 seconds from first to fifth places.

Brandeis is next in action on Nov. 15th at the New England Division III regional championships, where they will hope to earn a berth at the NCAA championships.