In its first action of the season, the women's cross country team defeated University of Southern Maine 15-48 in the rain at local Weston High School.In cross country, points correspond to the sum of the first five finishing positions for each team. The women were able to a score a perfect 15 points by sweeping the Huskies and taking the first five places.

Captain Grayce Selig '11 placed first in the race, finishing with a time of 14 minutes, 48 seconds.

Kate Warwick '12, who finished second in the race with Hannah Lindholm '11, Erin Bisceglia '13 and Ali Kirsch '14 with a time of 16:23, echoed Selig's success on the team.

"I run with [Selig] almost everyday," Warwick said. "It's great to run with her. She's going to do great things."

The only Southern Maine runner to finish before any Brandeis runner was senior Carly Dion, who clocked in with a time of 16:25, finishing the race sixth.

The Judges, however, would also claim seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth finishes in the race. Vicky Sanford '14 and Amelia Lindkvist '14 both finished in 16:28, while Monique Girard '13 finished at 16:29. Marie Lemay '12 crossed the finish line 9 seconds later with a time of 16:38.

Southern Maine's other seven runners finished between the 18:12 and 19:46 mark.

Warwick was pleased with how the team ran.

"[The race] was pretty good," Warwick said. "We ran as a whole team. For us, places didn't matter."

Unlike the women, the men's team did not have a scored meet this week. Instead, they continued to work in an alumni meet on Friday at Weston High School.

In this friendly race, alumnus Dan Suher '08 took first place, with Kerwin Vega '11 and co-captain and 2009 All-American Paul Norton '11 finishing second and third.

However, the rest of the pack took an apparent wrong turn along the path and ended up off course, and they therefore were disqualified from the race.

The men's first competitive race will take place on Sept. 18 at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Shriner's Invitational. It is also the women's next meet as well.

"The UMass-Dartmouth invitational is our first real test," said Norton. "We know the course, and racing against some of our rivals will be a good to test our progress from last season."

Norton also noted that having a deep team of 19 runners would aid them during the season.

"You only need five people to score, but the more people you have, the better," he said. "Last year, we had injuries and sicknesses before races. Now, we have more wiggle room, with plenty of people who we know can step up into an important role at any time and compete.