Despite its first top-10 finish in New England since 2001, the men's cross country team finished just short of qualifying for the NCAA Championships last season. Head coach John Evans says the team has sufficient motivation for this season after several members suffered food poisoning at last year's University Athletic Association championships.

"We were good enough to qualify last year, but we got unlucky when we went into New Englands with six of our top seven runners sick," Evans said.

"We want to be at that level where we thought we were last season."

To exceed their sixth place finish at Regionals, the Judges must replace two of its top four runners. Promising rookie Brian McDonald, who finished with the third-fastest time among rookies in Regionals last season, transferred to Loyola Marymount, and captain Joel Sunshine '07 graduated.

All other key contributors from last season return, and Evans welcomes in one of the top recruiting classes in the region.

"We have five or six guys that have even stronger credentials than [McDonald] had coming in [last year]," Evans said.

The women's team finished 13th at Regionals last season, but its top three finishers-Megan Bisceglia '07, Camille Stevens-Rumann '07 and Mary Schillinger '07-all graduated. Evans admits that this may be a transitional year for the Judges, but Emily Terrin '08, Katy Agule '09 and Ally Connelly '10 all return to lead the way, and they will be joined by many new recruits.

The two squads begin the season at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Invitational Sept. 15 at 10 a.m.