The senior tandem of Beverly Whelan (18:25) and Mairead O’Callaghan (18:52) led the way for the Crimson, placing 12th and 19th, respectively, in the 5,015-meter race. They were trailed closely by junior Kimberly Smith (18:58) and senior Virginia Scott (19:10), who took 22nd and 30th. Laura Maludzinski (19:14), last year’s freshman phenom, rounded out Harvard’s top five in 34th place. As a team, the Crimson ran better times than they have at the Boston College meet in the past two years.

“We wanted our top five to finish close together and we all finished within a minute of one another,” Whelan said. “Our training is already paying off.”

Like the men, the women were not overly concerned with team scores but used the meet as a building block for the season.

“It was important to establish base times that we can work from,” O’Callaghan said. “We have a lot of races at Franklin Park this year so it was important to get to know the course.”

Harvard also got a preview of Brown’s squad, which finished third but beat the Crimson by a narrower margin than last year.

Throughout the season the Crimson hopes to keep a very tight pack in the top five to pull each other along and break up other teams’ finishers.

“Most of our top five has been running together for two years now,” O’Callaghan said.

To cement the bond of its frontrunners, eight of the returning athletes took a trip to a secluded cabin in the Adirondacks before pre-season for four days of hill workouts.

The Crimson women will join the men on September 27 at the Iona Invitational.

—Staff writer Christopher Schonberger can be reached at schonber@fas.harvard.edu.