LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Brandeis University women's cross country team finished in 20^th place at the 2021 NCAA Division III Championships today at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park in Louisville, Kentucky. The Judges were paced by a pair of All-America performances. Senior Niamh Kenney (Hanover, Mass./Hanover), earned her second career All-America honor, and first in cross country, with a 32^nd-place finish, and classmate Erin Magill (South Duxbury, Vt./Harwood Union), who came in 36^th to earn her first career All-America nod.

"Today was a brilliant day," said head coach Sinead Delahunty Evans, in her eighth season with the Judges. "I'm so proud of how everyone ran. They were so committed through the past 18 months of COVID and the uncertainty of competition."

Both Kenney and Magill ran personal-bests for a six-kilometer cross country race, with Kenney posting a time of 21:42.1 and Magill running 21:47.5, marking the first time either runner eclipsed 22 minutes for the distance. After a slow first kilometer in which the Judges found themselves at the back of the main pack of runners, Magill and Kenney made a move to the front of the pack over the next two kilometers. Kenney moved up 141 places over that span, averaging 3:33 per kilometer over that span, while Magill improved by 128 spots by averaging 3:30.

The pair continued to improve over the final half of the race. Magill was in her All-America position by the 4K mark, running in 39^th, while Kenney was 44^th at that point. Kenney ran 3:42.5 for the fifth kilometer to climb into 38^th place, while Magill was in 36^th with 1K to go. Kenney passed her teammate with a final kilometer of 3:23, while Magill ran 3:29.

This marks the fifth time in program history that Brandeis women's cross country had two All-Americans in the same season, and the first time since 2002, when Mariko Tansey Holbrook Neveu '03 and Caitlin Malloy '03 were seconds and 22^nd overall.

"Niamh and Erin were rewarded for their dedication, and the entire team had a great accomplishment in finishing 20^th," said Evans. "With four of our top seven back next year, we are excited to keep the momentum going in the program."

The Judges had terrific performances up and down their lineup. Senior Natalie Hattan (Sugar Land, Texas/Clements) continued as the team's third runner, running a personal best by 12 seconds to finish in 149^th place overall. Hattan moved up continuously throughout the race, moving up 62 places from the first split to the three-kilometers. She closed strong with a 3:32 final leg to finish in 22:45.3. Sophomore Juliette Intrieri (North Salem, N.Y./North Salem) was the team's fourth runner, placing 193^rd with a mark of 23:03.3. Intrieri shattered her previous six-kilometer best time by 50 seconds. Intrieri ran each of her splits under four minutes, including 3:45 for the final kilometer.

Sophomore Lizzy Reynolds (Winchester, Mass. / Winchester) rounded out the team's scorers by finishing in 239^th place with a time of 23:29.4, almost two minutes faster than her previous career best. It was Reynolds' first time among the Judges' scoring five this season, having missed the first half of the season to injury and finishing sixth in the squad's previous meets. Junior Bridget Pickard (Westwood, Mass. / Westwood) and first-year Zada Forde (Leverett, Mass. / Amherst Regional) were the team's sixth and seventh runners with times of 23:48.6 and 23:50.8, good for 263^rd and 265^th, respectively. Pickard's time was a p.r. by 10 seconds, while Forde's was her career-best by around 50 seconds.

In all, the team finished with a spread of 1:47.3 and an average time of 22:33.6. Their 496 points were just behind a pair of University Athletic Association conference mates: Carnegie Mellon finished in 18^th with 489 points while Emory was 19^th with 493. The teams all finished within three points of each other at the UAA championships. In addition to finishing fifth among six UAA squads (Washington U 5th, Chicago 6^th, Case Western Reserve 25^th),  Brandeis was also seventh among New England teams (Williams 7^th, Tufts 9^th, MIT 12^th, Middlebury 14^th, Wellesley 15^th, Bates 16^th). Johns Hopkins won its NCAA record-tying seventh crown with 130 points, edging Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by two points.