The men's and women's track teams kicked off their spring seasons together at the Tufts Pre-Penn Relay Meet on Saturday. Ten teams competed at the non-scoring meet in Medford and the Judges turned in a myriad of strong individual performances.Men's captain Ryan Parker '06 and Geoff Fauchet '05 finished first and second respectively in the 800-meter run with times of 1:57.74 and 1:58.20.

In the 1500-meter run, a Brandeis pack including Joel Sunshine '07, Aaron Skolnik '05 and Tim Condon '08 placed second, fourth and fifth respectively with times of 4:04, 4:06 and 4:10. Sunshine led the trio in a surge at the end of the race, but came up short of first place.

"I figured the guy in the front [Jeff Alden of Colby Sawyer College] would die out because he really went hard early," Sunshine said. "So with 200 meters to go I took the lead [of the Brandeis pack] and we really kicked it up. But he had a huge lead on us; we shouldn't have let him go that long. If we had [run harder] we probably would have gone one-three- four instead of two-four-five."

David Weinstein '08 placed third in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.39 in his first collegiate competition after recovering from an injury in the winter season.

"[Weinstein] is a great sprinter," coach Mark Reytblat said, "so we're going to gain a lot in the sprints and the 4x100 relay."

Machel Charles '06 also finished third in the 400-meter with a time of 51.86.

"Everybody performed well this weekend," Parker said. "It was a great meet for the whole team, and I don't think anybody had a disappointing performance."

"Everyone's a little rusty," Remy Coyle '07 said. "Sprinters just started doing workouts again, but we did well. No one was at their absolute best, but we had some good races."

The men also performed well in the relays, taking a second and a third place finish. The 4x100-meter team of Ralph Chery '07, Mark Bercy '07, David Weinstein '08 and Charles notched a time of 44.63 to take second place, while the 4x400-meter team of Fauchet, Charles, Sunshine and Parker finished third with a time of 3:27.67.

Jane Farrell '06 led the women's team with top finishes in the pole vault and the 200-meter run. Her vault of 10 feet was good enough for second place and she finished third in the 200-meter run with a time of 27.05.

Adie Sprague '08 also had a strong third place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.76.

One challenge for both teams was adjusting to the harsh running conditions of the New England weather. The outside race was the first for both teams since the fall.

"It's almost impossible to do anything really fast this time of year," Reytblat said, "because it's the first track meet and the conditions are bad."

"It was just good to get a race in and get a feel for running outside," Sunshine said. "I don't think anyone's feeling any slower than usual, but I think we'll all be better the next week."

The team hits the tracks again on Saturday at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.