The men's and women's cross country teams wrapped up successful weekends at the Open New England Championships, with the men finishing in 11th place (third out of Division III schools) and the women in 20th (sixth out of Division III schools). Forty-nine Division I, II and III schools competed at the meet at Franklin Park in Boston. For the men, the meet marked the best team finish since they also placed 11th in the meet in 1998. The women's results were especially impressive considering two of their top runners were unable to compete due to injury.

Paul Norton '11 again paced the men's team, as he has all year. Norton finished sixth out of 320 competitors with a time of 24 minutes, 46 seconds. He had the second-fastest time among Division III runners and was just 5 seconds away from a top-3 finish.

Chris Brown '12 finished the 8-kilometer course with a time of 25:39, while Marc Boutin '12 finished 4 seconds behind him to give the Judges three runners in the top 50. Brown and Boutin came in 43rd and 50th place overall and were 12th and 15th out of Division III runners, respectively.

"[Brown] and [Boutin] both ran fantastic races for us," Norton said.

Devon Holgate '11, who finished in 113th with a time of 26:19, and Dan Anastos '11, who was 133rd with a time of 26:27, rounded out the top scores for Brandeis.

The men's team was only 30 points behind the top Division-III school, a trivial amount given the scores were in the 300s.

"We're better than we have ever been at this point in the season, which is definitely an encouraging sign," Norton said.

Grayce Selig '11 who finished in 18:47, good for 46th place overall and the 11th-best Division III time, paced the women's team. Alyssa Pisarik '10 was 65th overall and 23rd among Division-III runners with a 19:03 time.

"[Selig] and [Alyssa Pisarik] have both been having fantastic years for us, and it's really been a breakout year for [Alyssa Pisarik in particular]", Coach John Evans said.

Ally Connolly '10 was the third Judge across the line with a time of 19:38. She finished in 117th place, good for 42nd among Division III runners. Hannah Linholm '11 finished 8 seconds behind Connolly, good for 128th overall and 45th in Division III.

The women fared well despite competing without Marie Lemay '11 and Kate Warwick '12, who both were unable to compete due to illness.

Both squads felt they did well against mainly Division I and II teams.

"We all have room to improve, but at same time, we were very solid and better than we ever have been," Evans said. "It's really encouraging to be among the top squads in New England."

Norton said both teams used the meet to prepare for the upcoming conference championships, and the NCAA Regional Championships.

"In order to perform our best, we usually run less the week before a major meet, and that's what many teams do for New Englands. We are all training hard for the conference championships instead, so we ran hard this week and that definitely slowed us a bit," Norton said.

Both the men's and women's squads next compete at the conference championships held at Case Western Reserve University on Oct. 31.