The men's and women's cross country teams ran away with their season-opening meet Friday, as the Judges trounced Bentley College in a meet hosted by Brandeis at Weston High School. The women's team placed four runners in the top five to beat the Falcons 42-17, while the men's team swept the top 10 spots of its competition, rolling over Bentley 50-15. Megan Bisceglia '07 and Camille Stevens-Rumann '07 tied for first place on the women's side, while Emily Terrin '08 finished second. Bisceglia and Stevens-Rumann both crossed the finish line at 15:57, and Terrin finished the 4K race in 16:01.

"Everyone ran really well; we just ran the race as a team," Stevens-Rumann said. "We really finished the way we thought we were going to."

Bisceglia agreed, but noted that the women used this season-opening meet to evaluate where they were as a team.

"We weren't really going all out," Bisceglia said. "We just wanted to stay together and run a good, hard effort and try to pace some of our teammates behind us."

The men dominated as well, as the top six finishers all clocked in at 20:09. Danny Glass '07, Dan Suher '08 and Joel Sunshine '07 were among the top finishers, as the Judges crushed the Falcons in the 6K race.

The rookies on the men's side looked promising in their Brandeis debuts. Brian McDonald '10 finished sixth with a time of 20:09, while Roy Bondurant '10 clocked in at 21:00 to round out the top 10.

"We expected [the rookies] to look pretty good coming in," Suher said. "Usually the first year is a building year where the [rookies] get used to the amount of mileage we run in college, but some of these guys are up there with our top runners, so we expected them to finish strong."

Much like the women, the men stressed that the race served as preparation for the rest of the season.

"This race was really more of a prep race," Suher said. "It was definitely good to have 10 guys in the top 10, but really this was more of a tough effort for us and not really a full out race. It was more of a way to give us an indicator of what people are going to be doing this season."

Both the men's and women's teams stressed that the need to run together as a team is a critical factor to the Judges' continued success as the season progresses.

"We really have to work together in upcoming races because it really helps," Bisceglia said. "Sometimes when you are alone on the course it's easy to lose your determination, but if you have a lot of teammates around you, you can all help each other and pull each other along."

Sunshine added: "We will definitely continue to run together, but everyone needs to get into a rhythm first. Once everyone gets into a rhythm, we can definitely start to spread out a little."

Both teams will race on Sept. 16 at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Invitational in North Dartmouth, Mass.

"It's a really big invitational, so we are just trying to place well as a team," Biscelgia said.