The men and women’s cross country teams ran at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday, with the women taking home the gold title, while the men came in fifth out of 33 competitors. 

The Judges took home the gold for the second consecutive season, outpacing their opponents for a first-place finish. 

The victory for the women’s side was its second straight to start the season. Similar to the first win, Emily Bryson ’19 paced the squad. She was able to finish in an impressive third place, improving upon her fifth-place finish at the same meet a year ago. Bryson ran the 5K race in an incredible 17:50.83, 19 seconds faster than her time last year. 

Other Judges besides Bryson performed admirably. Kate Farell ’17 captured an eighth-place finish in a time of  18:28.66, which, much like Bryson, was a significant improvement on her time from a year ago. Also placing in the top-10 of the invitation was Julia Bryson ’19, whose time of 18:30.74 was good enough for ninth place. 

In 29th place was Danielle Bertaux ’20 who ran a time of 19:11.96 in only her second collegiate competition. The fifth competitor of the race for the squad was Meaghan Barry ’19 who finished in 50th with a time of 19:27.87. The final runner for the Judges was Christine Minor ’19 who finished the 5k in 20:05.56, which qualified her for 82nd place.    

On average, the team finished with a time of 18:42.02, which was 14 seconds faster than the runner- ups from Stonehill College. The Judges won the invitational out of a highly competitive field featuring 37 teams and 275 individual runners. 

For the men, impressive showings by many of the team’s runners were not enough to recapture last season’s UMass-Dartmouth title. A big reason the squad was unable to replicate its 2015 result was due to the absence of dominant runner, Ryan Stender ’18. The Judges dropped an astounding four whole places to a respectable, but disappointing, fifth-place finish. However, the Judges have kept a solid pace, coming in third place during their 2014-15 campaign. 

Pacing the Judges, for the first time in his collegiate career, was Liam Garvey ’18. Garvey finished the 8k competition in an impressive time of 25:36.20. He finished in 12th place overall, but 7th among only Division III competitors. Garvey’s time was a good 50 seconds quicker than his previous finish at UMass-Dartmouth in 2014.

The second best time on the day for the Judges came from Quinton Hoey ’17. Hoey, who missed the 2015 race at UMass-Dartmouth, earned a 33rd-place finish by crossing the line at 26:16.80. Three spots behind Hoey was Brian Sheppard ’18 who finished in a time of 26:20.43. 

Russel Santos ’18 also ran admirably, finishing with a time of 27:04.08 for 60th place. The fifth competitor for the squad was Eli Waxler ’19 who placed in 65th with a time of 27:09.15. 

The final two runners for the Judges were Brady Payne ’17 and Sam Reich ’20. The two finished in 74th and 88th place, with respectable times of 27:15.17 and 27:35.57, respectively. 

Also at the invitational was a sub-varsity race, in which six Judges’ competitors came in 3rd out of 14 teams. The best finish in the sub-varsity race for the team came from Dan Curley ’20, who finished in fourth with a time of 27:01.59.

The team will next be in action Oct. 8 at the James Early Invitational hosted by Westfield State University. The Judges will face fresh competition, as they will compete for the first time in the Westfield event.