The men and women’s cross country team posted solid finishes this past Saturday at the Connecticut College Cross Country Invitational, as the men finished in eighth out of 26 teams while the women finished in sixth out of 25. 

Liam Garvey ’18 led the men in the eight-kilometer race as he finished with a time of 25:56.2 for a 23rd overall finish. Mitchell Hutton ’18 finished with a time of 26:09.4 for 31st place, while Quinton Hoey ’17 earned a 40th-place finish with a time of 26:21.2. 

Brian Sheppard ’18 and Roger LaCroix ’18 finished in 49th and 51st place for the Judges, with times of 26:28.0 and 26:29.2, respectively.Rounding out the Judges’ competitors were Matt Doran ’17 and Max Whitmore ’18. 

Doran finished 68th place with a time of 26:49.7, while Whitmore ran the race in a time of 27:40.9, which was good enough for an 111th-place finish. The meet incorporated college competitors from mostly the New England region but included teams such as conference rival New York University and Carleton College in Minnesota. 

The Judges were able to finish ahead of their University Athletic Conference foe NYU while also beating out local rival the Tufts University Jumbos.

Sheppard was impressed with the squad’s performance. 

He stated,  “This meet we were happy to have a few injured runners back and we were using it as a building block for the rest of the season. It was Quinton’s and Mitch’s first race back and they both had pretty good ones.”

“I think the team performed pretty well all things considered. Liam Garvey really stepped up and raced very well after so much time off,” Sheppard said.

The team ran well, especially considering that leading runner Ryan Stender ’19, who had been the top competitor for the Judges so far, was out of the meet with an undisclosed injury. 

The women’s side also had an impressive showing while securing a sixth-place finish. 

Leading the Judges as she has all season was Emily Bryson ’19, who covered the six-kilometer course in a time of 21:50.5 for a ninth overall finish. While Bryson was the only member of the squad who finished in the top-10, other members of the team ran strong races.

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 finished in 13th place with a time of 21:59.6, while Lydia McCaleb ’17 earned a 32nd-place finish with a time of 22:44.8. Maddie Dolins ’17 ran the race with a time of 22:55.6 for a 38th- place finish, while Julia Bryson ’19 finished the meet with a time of 23:08.8, which was good enough for 46th place.

The final two Judges’ runners were Kyra Shreeve ’18 and Ashley Piccirillo-Horan  ’17. Shreeve earned a 48th-place finish in a time of 23:12.5 and Piccirillo Horan finished in 61st place with a time of 23:38.8. 

Earning top place in both competitions was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while host Connecticut College finished in second place on the men’s side and Tufts earned a second place finish for the women.     The team will next run at the UAA Championships on Oct. 31 at Franklin Park in Boston when they host fellow UAA sides. 

Sheppard commented that “We have all the parts we need to do well at UAAs and regionals, we just need them to all come together on the same day.”