The Dartmouth men's and women's cross country teams both finished fourth at the New England championships on Saturday in Boston's Franklin Park.
The Big Green women raced against a field of 45 teams from all over New England.
Boston College won the race convincingly, finishing with a total of 38 points. Ivy League foe Brown University finished 103 points behind the champions with 141 points, followed by Williams College with 190 points.
Dartmouth had its best finish at New Englands in recent years with 193 points.
Captain Caitlin Cunningham '09 led Dartmouth finishing in 18:22, good enough for 15th place on the five-kilometer course. Lizzie Short '12 stepped up for the Big Green with a 26th-place finish in a time of 18:30 in her first New England championship.
"It was really exciting because I didn't see this coming," Short said. "This race was a big improvement for me personally, and it was really nice to help the team and make an impact."
Other top finishers for Dartmouth included Aryn Gruneisen '09, Marissa Greco '12 and Amy Schuman '12, who all finished the race in under 19 minutes.
Andrea Walkonen of Boston University won the race with a time of 17:19.
"Overall, we did pretty well as a team," Short said. "I think we can beat a couple of teams coming up at the [Ivy League Heptagonal Championships]. I don't really know what to expect, but I think we'll do pretty well hopefully."
The Dartmouth women's sub-varsity squad took sixth place overall with 189 points, behind the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and ahead of Bates College. Lauren Campfield '11 led the Big Green with a 19:11 finish, good enough for 17th overall.
On the men's side, Dartmouth, without its top seven runners, faced 47 other teams from New England and came out with an impressive fourth-place finish.
The team race was more competitive than the women's race as the top three teams were separated by a total of 18 points.
The University of Massachusetts-Lowell won the team championship with 79 points. The University of New Hampshire took second with 89 points, and Brown's squad compiled 97 points for the third-place finish.
The Big Green amassed 192 points, finishing in fourth place.
Leading the Big Green was Alex Hall '10, who covered the eight-kilometer course in a time of 25:18 for 25th place.
"Coach will be looking at this race to determine our team's top 12 runners for the conference-championship race coming up," Hall said. "We sat out our top seven to see how the rest of the team stacked up."
Just as in the women's race, a Big Green rookie, Ethan Shaw '12, gave the team its second-best finish, crossing the line right behind Hall for 26th place with an identical time of 25:18.
Co-captains Hari Iyer '09 and Oliver Townsend '09 were third and fourth for Dartmouth, posting times of 25:26 and 25:30, respectively.
Tim Ritchie of Boston College won the men's race in 24:35.
In the sub-varsity division of the meet, Dartmouth was led by Dylan Summers '12, who covered the 8-kilometer course in 25:56.
Dartmouth will return to Franklin Park twice in the coming weeks, first on Sunday, Oct. 26 for the Mayor's Cup.
Two weeks later, after the Ivy League championships, the Big Green will head back to Boston again on Sunday, Nov. 9 for the USA Track and Field New England race.
Next weekend, the Big Green men and women will race at the NCAA pre-meet tune-up at Indiana State. The NCAA cross-country championships will be held back in Indiana on Monday, Nov. 24.
"In terms of what is next, our varsity squad is heading out to Indiana for pre-nationals next weekend," Hall said.
"It's pretty much our only chance during the season to race against top-notch competition from around the country. It's also a chance for us to pick up at-large points to help us get to nationals."
