The men’s and women’s cross country teams raced to respective eighth-place finishes at the University Athletic Association Championships this past Saturday afternoon, hosted by the Washington University in St. Louis and held in Forest Park.

The men’s squad—led by captain Jarret Harrigan ’15—ended the race with 193 points, just 14 behind the seventh-place University of Rochester. The women, paced by the 25th-place finish of Lydia McCaleb ’17, picked up their eighth-place finish with 226 points.

“The team as a whole, I thought, did very well; it's just a tough conference, said Mitchell Hutton ’18. 

“Most of us ran one of our top two times of the season.” 

“We started out perfectly as a team but just didn't move up as much as we had hoped.”

Hutton pointed to the difficulty of the meet going up against some of the country’s top runners.

“The UAA is extremely difficult to go up against. It is one of the best Division III conferences in the country,” he continued. 

“We just needed to make sure we ran our own race and didn't start off at a crazy pace with the front runners. I thought we did a good job of that too. We didn't let the other teams affect our own race.”

The women’s squad finished with an average time of 24 minutes, nine seconds, just under a minute slower than the pace of the seventh-place finishing squad from Rochester.

The UAA Championships were the first time this season that McCaleb was the Judges’ top finisher for the first time this season as she ended the six-kilometer race in 23:07.38. 

McCaleb was less than 10 seconds out of a top-20 spot and improved on her personal best in the 6K by more than 50 seconds, set at the Connecticut College Invitational on Oct. 18. 

Maddie Dolins ’17 crossed the line in 24:09.59, good for 54th place and was followed by Ashley Piccirillo-Horan ’17, whose time of 24:20.02 earned her a 59th-place finish. 

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 ran the course in 24:35.23 and Kyra Shreeve ’18 followed her with a time of 24:34.47. The duo placed 68th and 70th overall in the race. 

The average time of 26:27.09 put the men’s squad just five seconds behind Rochester and 15 seconds behind sixth-place finishers Case Western Reserve University. 

Harrigan finished the eight-kilometer race with a career-best 32nd-place finish. The senior finished the race in 26:16.69, a personal best at the UAA Championships. 

Harrigan’s time was also the second fastest he has run the 6K this year, after he completed the course in 25:26.66 at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational on Sept. 20. 

Ryan Stender ’18 raced to a 35th-place finish in 26:20.53, fifth-best of all freshmen at the competition. 

Quinton Hoey ’17 was the third member of the Judges to cross the finish line, stopping the clock in 26:33.99 for 39th-place. 

Hoey’s finish was both a 10-place and 35-second improvement on his race from last year’s UAA Championships, when he finished just inside the top 50. 

Hutton continued his strong season with a top-50 finish. 

His time of 26:36.09 secured a 47th-place finish for the squad, the 10th-best of all freshmen at the meet, but said he had room for improvement moving forward.

“My individual performance was decent,” he said. 

“I'm still getting used to the 8K distance because I was injured during the middle of the season and missed a couple of races.” 

“I also went out a little too fast which I can improve on in the next race. But considering it was only my second 8K ever it was a good performance,” he continued.

Grady Ward ’16 improved on his position from last year’s race by more than 10 positions, taking 48th place in 26:38.11. 

Matt Doran ’17 crossed the line in 26:52.61 and Liban Aiden ’16 finished in 26:59.40 to round out the top seven Brandeis finishers. 

Both squads close their seasons on Nov. 15 in the New England Division III Championships, hosted by Williams College.

“For New Englands we just need to work on moving together as a team up through the pack,” said Hutton. 

“We need to finish stronger and then I think we can place high and crack the top 10 in the region.”