BOSTON, Mass. – Bentley University senior Seamus Higgins (Randolph, N.J/Randolph HS) was the Falcons' number one finisher Saturday when the 2017 New England Championships were contested at Franklin Park.

Higgins improved drastically over his 2016 performance while placing 70th with an 8,000-meter time of 26:38.7. That was an improvement of 69.2 seconds from a year ago and he climbed more than 100 places in the standings.

Sophomore Ben Edwards (Morristown, N.J./Morristown HS) and junior Cody Murphy (Dunbarton, N.H./Goffstown HS) were the next two Falcons to cross the line and they finished consecutively. Edwards was 113th in 27:27.5 and Murphy trailed him by 3.8 seconds.

Bentley's number four runner was junior Dan Hergott (Wallingford, Conn./Xavier HS), who placed 134th in 27:56.1.

Bentley finished the meet ranking 22nd of 27 in the team standings, including six of eight among Division II teams.

Stonehill College edged MIT for the team championship, 119-124, with UMass a close third with a 133. Two Northeast-10 runners were the first to finish with American International's Leakey Kipsogei winning in 24:51.3 and Southern New Hampshire's Tyler McLaren following in 25:25.6.

Bentley will be back in action Oct. 22 when the Northeast-10 Championships are contested in Westfield.