The men's and women's indoor track and field teams kicked off their season at the Northeastern Invitational this Saturday. Although there were no team scores, there were several noteworthy performances from both the men's and women's teams. The men's team had a very strong showing with four athletes finishing in the top-10. Dan Crespin '05 finished fifth in the 5,000-meter event with a time of 15:00.17.

The men also had two top 10 finishers in the mile run. Aaron Skolnik '05 and Joel Sunshine '07 finished sixth and seventh respectively. Waltham native Ralph Chery '07 came in ninth in the 400-meter event with a time of 50.82.

"It was a good start to the season," Crespin said. "Basically my coaches told me to go out and run 72 seconds per 400 and I was doing that and I slowed down a little bit and picked it back up in the end."

There were three top-10 finishers on the women's team. Jane Farrell '06 finished fifth in the pole vault event with an impressive mark of 11 feet six inches, which was Brandeis' best performance of the season.

Olivia Alford '07 finished seventh in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.91 seconds. Sarah Beckwith '05 placed ninth in the 5,000-meter run with a blazing time of 19:25.94.

Both teams are very young and lack veteran experience. The men's squad has a combined 18 first-years and sophomores while the women's team has a total of 14 underclassmen. This means that there is not much of depth on either squad and the mile, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter events in particular will be challenging.

The relay teams do not have much experience running together, but they do have the potential to have successful winter campaigns.

There are, however, high expectations for the seniors, particularly Crespin, who competed in nationals a year ago. Farrell is in her third season with the team and is hoping to be one of the top pole vaulters in the UAA.

The good news for the Judges is that with the exception of Peter Vigneron '07, neither squad has many serious injuries, thanks to an extensive training and conditioning program the team went through during the fall months.

Because the team is so young, it is hard for the coaching staff and athletes to have lofty goals for the winter season.

The general feeling is that if the Judges can consistently improve upon their times and marks throughout the season to showcase strong performances in the UAA Championships, it will be a successful season.

The Judges next compete in the Reggie Poyau Memorial Invitational on Jan. 22. and then six days later in the Terrier Classic in Boston.

"I was very impressed by people's performances [Saturday]," Remy Coyle '07 said. "I think we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of training but with time we have a lot of potential this season."

"Now the money is in the bank," coach Mark Reytblat said. "Now we just have to go and do it.