Five men's runners and 11 women's runners on the Brandeis cross country teams crossed the finish line before any of their respective opponents at last Saturday's season-opening meet against Division II foe Bentley College at Weston High School. Both the men's and women's cross country teams cruised to victories over the Falcons. The No. 13 men's team won by a 15-48 decision, while the women's team took the meet 15-50. With both teams taking the top five slots in each race, the Judges quickly defeated Bentley by securing the minimum 15 points for the meet.

"It was a good day," Coach John Evans said of the opening meet. "We just wanted the team to run together and run a good solid race. It was accomplished on both sides. We picked up the pace as we went along, and it wasn't really a tough race."

Sam Donovan '11 led the men's team and finished first among a pack of five runners in the 6,000-meter race with a time of 19 minutes, 54 seconds.

Teammates Paul Norton '11, Dan Anastos '11, Devon Holgate '11 and Chris Brown '12 rounded out the top five, each finishing the course with the same time of 19:54. Bentley senior captain Steve Bergantino was the first Falcon to complete the course, closing it out at 19:56, good enough for a sixth-place finish.

Brown reemphasized the team's goal to run together as a unit.

"We took it as a tempo run," Brown said. "[We] went easy to get back in groups and finished strong as a team."

The Judges dominated the rest of the field by also taking the seventh through ninth seeds as part of owning 11 of the top 15 slots. Ryan Cheng '11 and Ben Bray '11 took seventh and eighth place, respectively, with a time of 19:59, while Alex Hulse '12 came in just one second later to take ninth place overall.

Holgate's top finish in this race marks a big step in his return to the cross country team this season. Holgate missed both his rookie and sophomore years because of a quad injury and a bout of pneumonia that sidelined him during each of the last two cross country seasons, according to Evans. Holgate ran during the indoor track season last year but made his cross country debut last Saturday.

Evans said that Holgate has progressed since his injuries and has become one of the team's best runners.

"[Holgate] had a good offseason, and he's really stepped it up and will be one of our top guys," Evans said. "We have a good team, and [Holgate] is going to be a big part of that. . Once he's gotten healthy, we've seen what he could do. I think he could be all-American in cross country."

On the women's side, 11 Brandeis runners crossed the finish line as a group before any of the Bentley runners reached the end of the race. Grayce Selig '11 led the pack of nine Judges who finished with a meet-best time of 15:45 and found herself at the top of the field at the event for the second year in a row. Two runners, Jess Girard '10 and Julia Alpaio '10, had the second-best time among the field at 15:49 and finished in 10th and 11th place, respectively.

Selif was joined at the top by Marie Lemay '11, Kate Warwick '12, Erin Bisceglia '12, Alyssa Pisarik '12, Hannah Lindholm '11, Emily Owen '11 and captains Ally Connoly '10 and Beth Pisarik '10.

Bentley junior Lauren Lesniak was the first Falcon to finish the course, taking 12th place with a time of 16:05.

Lemay spoke about her reaction to the team's success.

"It felt good," she said. "It shows that we have a really deep team and that we're all pretty close to each other."

Evans also added that last Saturday's meet would serve as good preparation for the tougher meets that lie ahead as the season progresses, as he expects both teams to reach the NCAA Championships this season after the men did so last year for the first time in 10 years.

"It's a good stepping stone to see where we all are right now. It's just a good start," he said. "We have a big invitational in a couple of weeks. These are all prep races for [University Athletic Association Championships], and [Division III New England Regional Championships] and I think the girls will surprise a few people and qualify for nationals [with the men's team]".

Both teams will next compete at the UMass-Dartmouth Invitational Sept. 19 at 10 a.m.