In the first team-scored meet of the indoor season, the men won four events to earn fifth out of ten teams, while the women won three to take third of a field of nine in Saturday’s Reggie Poyau Invitational at Brandeis University.

Sophomore John McGrail earned the first win for the men in the 3000m, crossing the line in 8:45.67. Dan Murner took the 5000m, winning by more than seven seconds with a time of 15:19.74.

In the shorter distances, the men continued their strong showing. Steve Corsello ’11 and Steve Stewart ’09 finished one-two in the 800m, with Corsello taking the win in 1:59.41. Ben Scheetz ’12 had an impressive rookie showing, taking the final win for the men with a 1:24.89 in the 600m, more than two seconds ahead of the runner-up.

On the women’s side, senior Liz Dalton made a statement of her own, winning the 5000m by more than 17 seconds with a time of 18:34.95. Continuing Amherst’s dominance in the distance events, Zandra Walton ’09 and Sophie Galleher ’10 took the top two spots in the 3000 with times of 10:30.24 and 10:33.09, respectively. The women’s final victory was by the 4x400 relay team consisting of Susan Wasserman ’11, Molly Priedeman ’09, Mary Doris Reggis ’10 and tri-captain Carly Levenson ’09, who took the race with a time of 4:08.26.

While the results were notable, the team anticipates even greater success on Saturday when it heads to Tufts University, thanks to an Interterm spent in intense training.

“We used Interterm to train really hard and get a lot of work in — the double sessions allow us to build a base that helps us for the rest of the season,” said Levenson. “I think the [Brandeis meet] went really well, but in terms of racing, the hard work generally begins to pay off after Interterm, when we go back to once-a-day practices and everyone’s legs are fresher... so we’ll be looking to see some of that payoff at Tufts.”

Indoor track will compete this weekend at Tufts University, looking to improve upon their first team performance of the year.