WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Brandeis men's cross country team earned its second win of the season on Saturday at the 2016 James Earley Invitational. The meet was held at Westfield State University, home of this year's NCAA New England regional in November. On the women's side, the Judges finished in fourth place. Both fields featured 41 teams total. Individually, both the men and women had the race runner-up, with junior Ryan Stender (Amherst, Mass./Amherst Regional) finishing second for the men and sophomore Emily Bryson (Quincy, Mass./No. Quincy) taking second for the women.

FOR THE MEN

• The Brandeis men were competing with their top team for the first time all season and placed their top four runners among the top 15 and five of the top 33 en route to winning the meet with 68 points, 40 ahead of second-place Tufts.
• Stender, racing close to home, covered the 8-kilometer course in 25:19.61, just nine seconds behind the winner from Gordon College.
• This was Stender's first meet of the 2016 campaign after battling injury in the early part of the season.
• Junior Mitchell Hutton (Villa Park, Calif./Villa Park) finished second on the team with a sixth-place performance in 25:43.54, just two seconds shy of a personal record for eight kilometers.
• Senior Quinton Hoey (Watertown, Conn./Watertown), in his second race of the season, took 12^th place with a time of  25:59.09.
• Junior Liam Garvey (West Springfield, Mass./West Springfield) placed 15^th overall with a time of 26:01.48.
• Junior Brian Sheppard (Whitman, Mass. / Whitman-Hanson Reg.) rounded out the top five in 33^rd place with a time of 26:36.79, giving the Judges a spread of 1:17 among their primary scorers.
• Junior Russell Santos (Marshfield, Mass. / Marshfield) and senior Brad Payne (Westport, Conn. / Staples) finished out the top 7 for the Judges with times of 28:03.10 and 28:23.36

FOR THE WOMEN

• The Judges ran a little short-handed at the meet, with only five runners – all sophomores – competing on the 5K course, as they placed fourth with 222 points, 14 behind Keene State.
• Brandeis was paced by both Bryson sisters. Emily, the defending UAA champion, finished 23 seconds behind Jess Cardin of host Westfield State, with a time of 21:49.07.
• In three meets this season, Emily has finished first, third and second. She has never finished lower than ninth at an Invitational meet.
• Twin sister Julia Bryson (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) took ninth place with a time of 22:29.69. It was her third-straight top-10 finish.
• Meaghan Barry (Marlborough, Mass./Marlborough) took 44^th overall with a mark of 23:44.89, her second-highest finish of the season.
• Christine Minor (Alameda, Calif./Alameda) came in in 62^nd place with a mark of 24:06.53, while Doyin Ogundiran (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East) was the last Brandeis runner with a time of 25:14.09, 138^th place.

UP NEXT

• The Judges travel to New London, Conn., next week for the Connecticut College Invitational.