From Brandeis University Athletics

The Brandeis University women's cross country teams put up a hard fought performance at the 2017 University Athletic Association championships today hosted by New York University at Garrett Mountain in New Jersey. 

The Judges scored 129 points to claim sixth place behind #7 Washington University who defended their UAA title with 37 points, followed by #15 Chicago who was second in 74 points. #29 Emory was third with 107 points, RV Carnegie Mellon place fourth with 116 and NYU edged the Judges by just one point, scoring 128.

"I was really proud of how hard the team ran today," said head coach Sinead Delahunty Evans. "This is the strongest cross country conference in Division III, and we have progressed nicely after each of our meets. I'm excited to race at Regionals next week to see what we are capable of."

Individually, junior Emily Bryson (Quincy, Mass./No. Quincy) earned her third-straight first-team All-Association honor by placing fourth overall. Bryson's 6K time today was 23:41.1, well off of what she ran to place third last year with today's course being much more grueling and technical. Chicago senior Khia Kurtenbach, who Bryson edged down the stretch in 2015 for the UAA title, won today in 23:04.7.

Brandeis junior and second half of the Bryson twins Julia Bryson (Quincy, Mass./No. Quincy), improved from the team's fourth scorer, and 28^th overall, last year at UAAs to second in 2016, as she placed 12^th with a time of 24:18.6.  For her performance, Bryson received second team all-UAA honors, a first in her career for the Judges. A pair of Judges came together across the line as the team's third and fourth scorers.  Freshman Niamh Kenney (Hanover, Mass./Hanover) continued her fantastic rookie season placing 37^th in 25:27.1.  Sophmore Danielle Berteaux (Prides Crossing, Mass./Beverly) who was timed in 25:27.9 for 38th followed her extremely closely. This finish was quite and improvement on last year for Berteaux who placed 67^th a year ago.

The team's fifth woman was junior Meaghan Barry (Marlborough, Mass./Worcester Acad.) who finished in a time of 25:45.1 and a place of 46^th.  This performance was incredibly impressive, as Barry has been battling injury.  With two more weeks until regionals it is likely she will make a jump to running closer with Kenney and Berteaux.

Juniors Doyin Ogundiran (Dix Hills, N.Y. / Half Hollow Hills East) and Christine Minor (Alameda, Cali., Alameda)  rounded out the final official scoring position, with Ogundiran taking 56^th overall and Minor  69^th with times of 26:19.3 and 26:29.0, respectively.

Senior Kyra Shreeve (Northborough, Mass./Algonquin Regional) was 69^th in 27:12.2; rookie Andrea Buldoc (Auburn, Mass. / Auburn) was 71^st in 27:23.0 to round out the Brandeis competitors.