NO. DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- Just an hour away from home, the men's cross-country team ran their first full-length 8k race this morning at UMass Dartmouth. A series of significant personal bests from the Judges culminated in a sixth-place team finish out of the 32 teams in the varsity competition. Stacked up with the other Division III teams, the Brandeis men came in first with 200 points. 

Senior Hugh Licklider (Newton, Mass./BC High) led his team, finishing 12th overall and first among the D3 competitors. Shaving over a minute off his previous PR of 26:06, Licklider crossed the finish line with a 25:04.77. 

Junior Parker Cook (Old Saybrook, Conn./Old Saybrook) and first-year Owen Powers (Cold Spring, N.Y./Haldane) also secured top-ten placements when compared to their D3 rivals. Cook attained a 48-second PR with a time of 25:38.91 and an overall varsity placement of 34th. Shortly after, Powers' completed his 8k debut with a 25:47.51 in 40th place. 

Next across the line was another first-year: Avery Innis (High Bridge, N.J./Voorhees). In his first standard collegiate-distance race, Innis came in 58th  and got a 26:01.26. He was the 14th D3 runner to complete the course. With a 67th-place finish at 26:16.91, sophomore Ben Weiner (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) took two seconds off his former best time. Within the division, Weiner was just two places behind Innis, coming in 16th place. 

Aidan Shames (Inwood, N.Y./Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics) kept up the trend of personal bests, breaking his old record by roughly 40 seconds with a 28:06.16. Jason Linch (Charlotte, N.C./Harper Middle College H.S.) wrapped it up for the squad, opening his season with a 28:56.98. 

The men's team will be joined by the women again for the next meet in two weeks, racing at Lehigh University's Paul Short Invitational. It will be held in Pennsylvania on October 2nd.