DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Senior Emily Bryson (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) earned the individual victory, while the 25^th-ranked Judges won the team competition for the third time in four years at the 2018 UMass Dartmouth Cross Country Invitational this afternoon.

Bryson, who had previously finished fourth, third and second in the race, finally crossed the tape first, covering the five-kilometer race with a time of 17:54.6, easily besting runner-up Sydney Packard of WPI by 20 full seconds. It was Bryson's second-fastest time on the UMass Dartmouth course by four seconds, after her third-place finish in 2016.

The Judges ended up placing their top five scorers among the top 25 runners. Rookie Jac Guerra (Guilford, Conn./Guilford) was next to cross the tape. After placing third at Wellesley in Brandeis's season opener, the rookie came in fourth with a time 18:21.4. That marked a 28-second improvement from Guerra's collegiate debut.

Senior Julia Bryson (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy) placed 12^th overall with a time of 18:58.8, falling out of the top 10 at the race for the first time since her rookie season. Junior Danielle Bertaux (Prides Crossing, Mass./Beverly) was just off her career-best finish at UMD, placing 16^th overall in 19:05.7, three places and eight seconds off her sophomore season performance. Rounding out the top five was sophomore Niamh Kenney (Hanover, Mass./Hanover), who ran the race for the first time and placed 23^rd with a time of 19:10.2, edging out senior Meaghan Barry (Marlborough, Mass./Worcester Academy) by 2.3 seconds.  Barry improved her time by two seconds, but was two spots lower in the finishing standings. A testament to the team's overall improvement, Barry was the fourth finisher last year. Rookie Erin Magill (South Duxbury, Vt./Harwood Union) rounded out the top seven in 36^th place with a time of 19:34.8.

On the men's side, Brandeis finished in 13^th place with 411 points. The top finishers for the Judges were sophomore Josh Lombardo (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) and rookie Matthew Driben (Reading, Pa./Wyomissing) were the top finishers, placing 44^th and 45^th respectively with times of 26:25.9 and 26:27.3 over the eight-kilometer course. Lombardo took 30 seconds off his time from his rookie campaign, improving 14 places in the process. Junior Dan Curley (Norwood, Mass./Norwood) placed 87^th in his first varsity run on this course with a time of 27:20.7.

Rookie Simon Powley (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) posted a time of 27:57.1 in his first collegiate 8K race, good for 119^th place, while junior Jacob Judd (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) ran 28:02.9 for 125^th place, a personal best by 13 seconds on this course in his first varsity race at UMass Dartmouth.

The Judges return to action on September 29^th when they travel to Brunswick, Maine, for the Bowdoin Invitational and a preview of the NCAA Division III Regional course.