The men's and women's cross country teams ran into no problems against tough competition Saturday at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Invitational, the teams' first major meet of the season.The men's team placed second out of 29 teams, while the women's team finished fourth out of 33.

The Judges triumphed over two nationally-ranked teams, No. 29 Tufts and No. 31 Amherst College. Trinity College, ranked 34th in the nation, came in first place, only nine points ahead of Brandeis. The men's team's performance could catapult them into a national ranking this week.

Brandeis was the only school to have five runners in the top twenty at the meet.

"This was a great race for our program," captain Joel Sunshine '07 said. "I think this is the best Brandeis Cross Country has run in a long time."

Tim Condon '08 placed tenth in the 5K, good for second place on the Judges, with a time of 25:46. Aside from the season-opening meet at Bentley College, Condon hadn't raced since last October.

"I felt like I ran a good race," Condon said. "We've all been working really hard in practice and I guess it paid off."

Brian McDonald '10 placed 16th in only his second collegiate race, second-best for the Judges, with a time of 26:16 in the 5K. Brandeis placed three consecutive runners from 19th to 21st place, as John Guilinger '08 finished with a time of 26:21, Matt Jennings '09 came in at 26:23 and Dan Suher '08 finished at 26:24.

After the successful finish at UMass-Dartmouth, the men's team has particularly high aspirations for this year.

"As long as we stay healthy, we could get into the top 5 in regionals which would send our team to nationals," Condon said. "I think we can even get in the top 3 at regionals this year."

Captain Megan Bisceglia '07 led the women's team Saturday by placing eighth in the 5K race with a time of 18:54. Captain Camille Stevens-Rumann '07 ran the race in 19:00 and finished in 10th place. Emily Terrin '08 placed 30th with a time of 19:29.

While running the 5K, Bisceglia, Stevens-Rumann, and Terrin all beat their personal records. Bisceglia shaved 42 seconds off her personal best, Stevens-Rumann sliced off 30 seconds, and Terrin cut an entire minute.

"I think this race was a really good start and we can build from here," Stevens-Rumann said. "This meet was a better showing than [the season-opener] at Bentley of how good we really are."

Bisceglia said that having a core of experienced runners will be an important advantage for the women's team this season.

"We only graduated one senior and we have six new freshmen," she said. "We have a really strong core of upperclassmen and I think the new blood will only make us stronger."

The cross country teams race next Saturday at 10 a.m. at Franklin Park in Boston in the Harrier Classic.