In the final meet of their seasons, the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III New England Region Qualifier Championships this past Saturday in Brunswick, Maine. Both squads performed well, with the women earning ninth place and the men grabbing 14th place, the team’s best finish in years.

First-year Eva Lauer showed strength beyond her years as she led the Mules with a 26th-place finish. Lauer’s time of 22:06.45 over the six-kilometer course earned her the fourth-best time out of all first-year runners. Junior standout Berol Dewdney finished closely behind Lauer in 31st place with a time of 22:12.94. Claire Dunn ’13 recorded a time of 22:51.24 for 53rd place and Layne Schwab garnered 59th place in 23:03.94. Kate Connolly ’14 (23.19.47), Claire Cannon ’13 (23.29.64) and Sophie Weaver ’14 (23.39.13) rounded out the Mules’ efforts by placing 73rd, 85th and 91st, respectively. Overall, the Mules racked up a score of 242 points for ninth place while Middlebury College, Williams College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the top three spots, respectively.

On the men’s side, the Mules demonstrated great improvement with their 14th-place finish on the eight-kilometer course. With six runners in the top 100 places in the race, and several that were first-years, the Mules have a bright future ahead of them. Ben Lester ’15 led the Mules with a time of 26:24.10, good for 77th place. Junior captain Brian Desmond grabbed 93rd place (26:39.83), Will McCarthy ’15 earned 94th place (26:42.37), Matthieu Nadeau ’12 nabbed 97th place (26:46.29) and Jeff Hale ’15 ran to 98th place. Just missing the top 100, Corey Park ’12 earned 106th place with a time of 26:54.93. The Mules tallied 442 points overall while Williams College and Middlebury College secured first and second place with 88 and 89 points, respectively.

Following these two strong finishes, the teams can reflect very positively upon their seasons. With many strong underclassmen runners, the Mules have much to look forward to in upcoming years.