The men's and women's cross country teams both started the season on high notes with the men finishing 11th out of 33 in the 8K and the women placing 10th out of 35 in the 5K UMass-Dartmouth Invitational. Every runner on the men's team set a personal best time in the 8K. Joel Sunshine '07 led the way, finishing 22nd with a time of 25:56. Captain Ryan Parker '06 finished 44th with of time of 26:27.

Women's captain Camille Stevens-Rumann '07 led the team with a 33rd place finish, with rookie Katy Agule '09 right behind in 34th. The women's team managed a solid finish despite being without two of its top runners, captain Sarah Romain '06 and Megan Bisceglia '07.

"I was pleasantly surprised by everyone's performance," coach John Evans said. "The morale of the team is really good, and everybody is feeling good and improving, so we are expecting a really good year."

Sunshine's team-best performance in the race is likely a sign of good things to come for the improving runner.

"Joel is unquestionably going to play the role of our leader," Parker said.

"He's developing so quickly," Evans said. "He didn't look this fast in high school, so he's surprising people with how well he's improved."

Parker, a two-time All-American in the indoor 1,500-meter run, did not fare as well in cross country, but said he was still satisfied with his finish.

"Being more of a long-sprinter and middle-distance runner, expectations for myself are not as high as you would think they might be for cross country," Parker said. "This distance is ten times farther than my optimal race distance in track, so here my job is really just to try to help out the team as best as I can."

On the women's side, Romain was very impressed with the the team's performance considering her absence from the race.

"It's fantastic that without the lead runners there, we still performed so well in this meet, especially with really tough competition," Romain said.

The next race for the Judges is the Harrier Classic in Boston on Sept. 24.