Bentley Women Projected for No. 2 in Sunday’s Northeast-10 Championships; Men Picked 7th
WALTHAM, Mass. – A pre-championship poll of conference coaches has the Bentley University women's cross country team projected to finish second in this Sunday's Northeast-10 Conference Championships and the men's team forecast for a seventh-place finish.
The championships will be run at Saint Anselm College with the men scheduled for a 10 am start and the women following at 11 am.
The Falcon women trailed only four-time defending champion Stonehill College in the voting with the Skyhawks out-pointing Bentley 188-171. The two teams were 1-2 among Division II teams in the New Englands earlier this month with Stonehill 15th overall and Bentley 19th.
Rounding out the top five in the coaches' poll were Merrimack (159), Saint Rose (142) and Adelphi (132).
Coach Kevin Curtin's Falcons should be led by junior Tara Dooley (Lee/Lee HS) and grad student Amy Varsell (Burlington, Conn./Lewis S. Mills HS), two of the premier runners in the conference.
Dooley was the runner-up in both the conference championships and the NCAA Division II East Regional each of the last two years and was third overall at the New Englands. Varsell, a five-time All-America on the track, was the number two Division II finisher at the New Englands, placing 15th overall, and was sixth in the 2011 NE-10 Championships.
Bentley will also be looking for scoring from senior captain Ashley Nichols (Kenmore, Wash./ Inglemoor HS), who was seventh among Division II runners in the New Englands. Two years ago, she was 11th in the Northeast-10 Championships.
Others expected to challenge for the individual title are Chelsea Bishop (Stonehill), Chloe Boutelle (St. Michael's), Betsy Eickelberg (Adelphi) and Alexandra Stasiuk (Adelphi).
On the men's side, Bentley is in the midst of a rebuilding season after losing six of the top seven from last year's squad that qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships. The top runner for the Falcons this season is senior Conor Higgins (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS), who was 57th overall in 2012.
Stonehill edged out Franklin Pierce in the men's coaches' rankings, 186-181, with each receiving seven first-place votes.