In the 3,000-meter race Saturday, Paul Norton '11 was behind, but in an electrifying finish, he stormed back to win the race for the men's indoor track and field team. He defeated Washington University in St. Louis junior David Spandorfer by less than a second.Norton and others impressed at the University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships at Brandeis last weekend.

The men's squad finished fifth out of seven teams, while the women placed fourth of seven teams.

WashU won the men's meet, while University of Chicago was victorious on the women's side.

Overall, the Judges finished with 11 All-UAA performances and two titles.

Even though neither team finished at the top of the standings, Norton enjoyed having the meet at Brandeis.

"It definitely helped me," he said. "I was more relaxed for this meet then I ever had been. I didn't even feel like I was getting ready for a race. It felt like practice. It helped keep the nerves down, and it was also really nice not to have to travel."

On the first day of competition, the men and women combined for four All-UAA finishes. The distance medley team consisting of Marc Boutin '12, Brian Foley '13, Chris Brown '12 and Devon Holgate '11 won Brandeis' sole title on the day. They finished with a time of 10 minutes, 8.42 seconds.

Holgate won the race in a photo-finish, beating New York University junior Matt Turlip by 0.5 seconds.

The team qualified provisionally for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championship.

The other notable finish was Norton, who placed second in the 5,000-meter run behind Emory University senior Tommy Fyffe, who set a conference record with a time of 14:43.09.

Norton noted the rivalry that exixsts himself and Fyffe, which has gone on for the past few years.

"I came in second last year to the same guy. . [Fyffe] made a huge move 2,000 meters in. I stayed back, and with six laps to go I picked the pace up and tried to catch up but ran out of space," Norton said. "It was my third time being second, and I'm kind of tired of always finishing second, so it gave me a lot of motivation for the next day."

The two other All-UAA finishes on the day came from the women's squad.

Lucia Capano '11 finished second in the long jump with a distance of 5.31 meters.

Her score was the longest jump until Emory sophomore Lauren Attiah beat her on the final jump.

Emily Owen '11 qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:15.92.

On day two both teams fared better, as they combined for seven All-UAA honors and one title.

Norton's time of 8:37.28 in the 3,000-meter run was the team's second title for the weekend.

Alex Kramer '13 also finished strongly in the race. Although Kramer was tripped up early on in the race, he came back and finished third, earning himself All-UAA honors.

The final men's UAA honors came in the 800-meter race, as Aaron Udel '10 finished third with a time of 1:56.13.

For the women, Grayce Selig '11 and Beth Pisarik '10 finished second and third, respectively in the 1-mile race.

Selig finished at 4:56.12, while Pisarik crossed the finish line with a time of 4:59.11.

The two topped the UAA record in the race, and Selig beat her record for the third time this season.

They are the only women to run a sub-5-minute mile in school history.

Despite their impressive performances, Selig and Pisarik lost out to WashU sophomore Liz Phillip, who won the race with a time of 4:55.32.

The women's other All-UAA performances came in the triple jump, where Capano earned her second UAA honor by placing third with a jump of 10.89 meters.

Both teams were extremely pleased with their results considering that they are a smaller team compared to other UAA schools such as WashU, Emory and Chicago.

"We were ecstatic about the results," Norton said. "We'd been last every season indoors and outdoors in the championship since I'd been here. We had no entrants in the hurdles, so that killed [us]. Other teams could pick up points; our team is nowhere near the size of a lot of other teams, so it's really hard for a lot of us to compete."

The next competition for those who qualified for the NCAA Championships will be at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. The meet will start Friday and finish Saturday.

Selig is excited for the NCAA Championships, as well as the start of the spring season,

"All of us are coming off the [winter] season doing really well," she said. "I think it'll carry over [into the spring].