RALEIGH, N.C. – Three members of the Bentley University men's outdoor track team, including senior Mike Vatti (Easton, Pa./Easton HS) and junior Sean Maguire (Essex, Vt./Essex HS), met qualifying standards for May's New England Championships with strong performances Friday during the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State's Paul Derr Track.

Maguire shattered his own personal best in the final event of the night, the 10,000 meters. He placed 17th of 42 in 31:25.28, bettering the mark he set at Northeastern a year ago by nearly a minute-and-a-half. The time was good for fifth on Bentley's all-time list, and only one Falcon runner in the last quarter-century has posted a faster 10K.

Senior Tom Witherell (Los Alamos, N.M./Los Alamos HS) also met the New England qualifying standard in the 10,000, his time of 32:36.06 a new PR by about 12 seconds.  He was 29th in the event.

Vatti ran the 400 meters in 49.06 seconds to place second of eight in his heat and 35th of 119 overall.  Amongst Division II runners in the 400, he had the fifth-highest finish.

Sophomore Conor Higgins (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS) posted a PR in the 1500, with his time of 4:02.00 good for fourth of 22 in his section and 20th of 77 overall.

Completing the list of Bentley participants in the meet, which attracted athletes from over 80 colleges and 20 track clubs, were juniors Craig Robinson (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough HS), Curtis Trueb (Eastchester, N.Y./Eastchester HS) and Bryan Carton (Norwell, Mass./Norwell HS). Robinson was 12th of 26 in his section of the 5000 with a time of 15:35.20, Carton was 62nd of 119 in the 400 (50.20) and Trueb ran the 1500 in 3:58.78, placing 10th of 15 in his section.

The meet continues on Saturday with Bentley due to compete in the 4x800 relay at about 3 pm.