Saturday, the Judges indoor track team participated in the Tufts Stampede held at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. The event was non-scoring, and included such schools as Amherst College, Middlebury College, Colby College, Trinity College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Although the men's team performed better than the women, individual successes abounded on both sides.

"It was the fist time I've seen everyone have such a good meet," Ben Oh '04 said. "There were a lot of personal records broken, and it is a shame that it wasn't a scoring event, cause we would have won."

On the women's side, the highlight of the weekend was the Distance Medley Relay. Run by Mariko Tansey Holbrook '03, Jessica Curlew '03, Karel Charles '03 and Caitlin Malloy '03, the Brandeis relay team not only took first place in the event, but also ran fast enough to secure themselves a spot in the NCAA Championships with a time that is currently the fastest in the nation for Division III.

"The performance was nothing short of amazing," Coach Jean Cann said. "I expected the team to make the NCAA Automatic time, but even I was surprised by how fast they ran. Everything came together perfectly for what we believe is an NCAA D-III record for the event."

Other notable performances from Brandeis women included several high-placed finishes. Curlew earned another first-place spot, this time in the 400-meter dash (59.34). Charles came in second in this event (59.53) and finished third in the 200-meter (26.75). Gretchen Chick '04 ran her best time of the season and brought home a second-place finish in the 1500-meter run (4:4.74). Jumper Hannah Zaitlin '03 placed third in the High Jump (1.53m) and tied for fourth place in the Long Jump (4.68m).

On the men's side, Brandeis runners enjoyed four first-place finishes. While Oh won the 55-meter (6.64) and the 200-meter (22.98), Aaron Skolnik '05 captured the 800-meter run (1:59.68) and Ryan Parker '06 took the 1500m (4:03.01).

"Parker and Oh were standouts on the men's side," Cann said. "Ryan ran the 1500m for the first time and won the race, with a time only 6 seconds off the NCAA provisional mark. He's certainly got a future in that event as well as the 800m, in which he's more experienced."

"After recovering from some health problems, Ben won both the 55m and 200m dashes," Cann continued. "He came close to his best times and beat some outstanding sprinters."

The Tufts Stampede was a prelude to the NCAA Division III New England Championships at Bowdoin (women) and MIT.