WALTHAM, Mass. – Seniors Tara Dooley (Lee/Lee HS) and Alix Pettinella (Wingdale, N.Y./ Arlington HS) will serve as captains of the 2014 Bentley University women's cross country team while junior Sean Nee (West Yarmouth/Dennis-Yarmouth Reg. HS) and seniors Christian Connolly (Kingston/Silver Lake Regional HS) and Mac Segura-Cook (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood Acad.) will fill that role for the men's team, head coach Kevin Curtin announced.

Dooley has been one of the region's premier cross country runners since her arrival at Bentley in 2012 and was one of the best in Division II nationally last fall when she earned All-America honors with a fourth-place finish in the NCAA Division II Championships. She earned Capital One NCAA Division II Academic All-America honors and was the USTFCCCA Division II East Runner of the Year.

Pettinella, who owns a share of Bentley's indoor record in the 4x800, has improved steadily during her time at Bentley. Last year, she had the team's tenth best time in the Northeast-10 Championships, placing 105th overall.

"Simply put, Tara and Alix are the co-captains of this year's women team because they are the two hardest workers on the team," said Curtin. "They've continued to improve athletically each year while excelling in the classroom, which is something that we pride ourselves in doing as a team. They've also done a great job in mentoring the freshmen and helping them make the transition to collegiate athletics."

Nee was one of Bentley's top five last year and placed 67th in the conference championships, an improvement of 39 places over his sophomore year. Connolly, after not running in any cross country meets during his first two years at Bentley, was 105th in the NE-10's last fall. Segura-Cook has been limited to four cross country meets over the last two years after placing 99th in the NE-10's as a freshman.

"Mac has been dealing with injuries the last couple of years but still helped immensely with last's year's team which had a lot of freshmen and that should pay dividends this year. Christian has earned everyone's respect over the last three years as he has transitioned himself from someone who walked on here his second week as a freshman into the fastest leg on our school record 4x800 last year. Sean was also on that 4x800 and he's probably the captain mostly likely to get the new people on board with our training and expectations.

"Like with the women's captains, our men's captains also excel in the classroom.  I'm proud to say the all 5 of this year's XC captains were 2013-2014 recipients of the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Awards," said Curtin.

Bentley's next meet is the UMass-Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday.