The men’s and women’s track and field teams opened their seasons at the non-scoring University of Massachusetts Boston Invitational at Northeastern University on Saturday where the Judges secured five top-three finishes.

The men contributed for five of the top six places in the 5,000-meter race. As he did during the fall cross-country season, Jarret Harrigan ’15 led the Judges. 

Harrigan ran a career-best 15:22.17 to win the race. His time was a good three seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

In the same race for the Judges were Quinton Hoey ’17 and Liam Garvey ’18, whose times of 15:38.29 and 15:46.40 were good enough for fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Both the men and women were prepared for their first competition of the season. 

First-year runner Haliana Burhans commented that the team was excited for the early meet.

 “[We were] all really looking forward to the meet. It was our first meet of the season, so we all were super excited to see where everyone stands”, she said. “We didn't put too much pressure on ourselves because it was the first meet of the season.”

In his first collegiate track run, Mitchell Hutton ’18 finished second overall in the 3,000-meter run. Hutton finished one second ahead of the third-place runner and 11 seconds behind the winner of the race, an unattached competitor. Brian Sheppard ’18 placed fifth in the race with a time of 9:13.86.

Trying to duplicate his All-American success from a year ago, Mo Sidique ’15 ran a career best 2:01.97 to secure a third-place finish in the 800-meter race. 

Sidique’s time was the top for a Division III runner, as an unattached competitor and Division II Stonehill College racer finished ahead of him.   

The career-best times continued with Grady Ward ’16, who ran the mile in a new low of 4:23.29. The time gave him a third-place finish, losing to two Stonehill runners by a combined five seconds. 

Also in the race for the Judges were Ryan Stender ’18, who ran the mile in 4:27.15 for fifth place, and Greg Bray ’15, who received eighth place with a time of 4:28.17. 

The women also had several strong finishes in the competition. 

Lydia McCaleb ’17 had top performance for the women as she finished in third place with a time of 11:08.85 in the 3,000-meter run.  McCaleb was only half a second behind the runner-up and a second ahead of the fourth-place finisher. Molly Paris ’16 ran to an eighth- place finish with a time of 11:19.21.

Burhans and the rest of the team were happy with their first performance of the season. 

“[There were many] people who were setting their personal records and many people placed really well in the overall meet. It was also a great time for team bonding too,” she said.

The mile was arguably the women’s top event of the competition as they placed three runners in the top seven. Fresh off her appearance at the DIII Cross Country championships, Kelsey Whitaker ’16 secured fourth place with a time of 5:12.27. 

Kristi Pisarik ’15 ran a career best 5:16.43 for fifth and Kyra Shreeve ’18 ran the mile 5:22.30, good enough for seventh.   

The team’s other top-10 finish came from Burhans, who was coming off of her own NCAA appearance with the women’s soccer team. Burhans, in her first collegiate race, finished the 200-meter dash in ninth place with a time of 26.95 seconds. 

About the rest of the season, Burhans commented that there are “very high expectations for our team in the future. Especially with this great start to the season, I think we can only improve from here.” She continued that, “Our coaches are the best most of us have ever had, and they will really push us and help all of us perform to the best of our abilities.”

The Judges will continue their season on Jan. 11 when they travel to New Hampshire for the Dartmouth Relays.