In its first appearance in the NCAA Championships in 10 years, the men's cross country team finished in 20th place out of 32 teams at last Saturday's meet at Handover College in Handover, IN. Brandeis, which took eighth place at its last NCAA tournament appearance in 1998, scored 512 points and finished third among the four New England schools which qualified at the New England Regional Championships Nov. 15. The Judges finished four places ahead of Amherst College, which placed second at the Regional Championships, but finished behind Trinity College, which finished seventh, and New England champions Williams College, which placed third.

Cortland State College won the NCAA championship, with North Central College finishing in second place. Hamilton College junior Peter Kosegi won the race with a time of 24 minutes, 22.03 seconds.

Paul Norton '11 led the Judges, finishing 39th out of 278 runners in the eight-kilometer race with a time of 25 minutes, 2.44 seconds. Norton started off slowly, sitting around 100th place at the one-mile mark, but climbed up the ranks as the race went on. He was four slots away from achieving All-American status, which is given to the top 35 runners, but said he was still satisfied with his performance.

"I got off pretty badly, not quite the start I wanted," he said. "It was a nice way to run, to [move] up the ranks the whole way. I haven't run in a field like that in a while, so it was definitely good. It was a pretty intense finish."

Marc Boutin '12 had the next best time for Brandeis, finishing eighth among rookies and 129th overall with a time of 25:46.63. Boutin was proud of his performance after admitting to pre-race jitters.

"I ended up getting out exactly the way I wanted to," he said. "I was close to about 100th at the mile mark and ended up staying there for most of the race and finished 129th. I was happy with how I ran. I was nervous a little before the race, but I ended [up] doing pretty well."

Chris Brown '12, Kerwin Vega '11 and Zach Schwartz '11 rounded out the scoring for the Judges, placing 155th, 186t, and 198th, respectively. Mike Stone '09 and Dan Anastos '12 were the Judges' final competitors, finishing in 220th and 239th place, respectively.

Stone, the only senior to run for Brandeis, said the NCAA Championship was the perfect place to end his cross-country career.

"It's very gratifying to make it here, especially in my senior year," he said. "I'm very happy to help get the team to this point. The whole atmosphere is geared towards everyone bringing their best performance. It was pretty amazing."

Boutin had similar thoughts on the Judges' run toward the National Championships and felt the experience will help him grow after his first collegiate season.

"Being around a group like these guys was great. They really helped me out with the transition to college running," he said. "I was in awe the entire time of Nationals. It's really exciting to be a part of the first Brandeis team to make it here in 10 years."

Next season Brandeis will lose only one senior from the top seven finishers from the NCAA Championships. The Judges will return a core of this season's first- and second-year runners, including Norton and Boutin, the 2008 University Athletic Association rookie of the year. The team also will see the return of last year's UAA rookie of the year Mekonen Gendebo '11, who missed time this season due to injury.

"I think we can come back and get up on the podium and have a few All-Americans next year," Norton said. "We'll come back more experienced and be able to gear towards the NCAA meet more. This year we geared more towards Regionals, and even though we ran well here the focus was really on just getting here, and I think next year we'll be in a position where getting here is not something we're going to settle for. We want to come back and do well.