WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley University men's and women's cross country teams will have their sights set on earning a trip to Spokane, Wash. and the NCAA Division II Championships when they run Sunday afternoon at Boston's Franklin Park in the NCAA Division II East Regional. The women's race is set for 1:30 pm and the men will follow at 2:30 pm.

The Bentley women enter the regional as one of the favorites to capture one of two qualifying berths out of the East for the championships. The Falcons, in Kevin Curtin's first season at the helm, finished second in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships two weeks ago and have been ranked second in the East most of the season. After their performance in the conference meet, they cracked the national rankings for the first time, checking in at number 25.

The Falcon men, who have been without their top two runners from last year's regional all season due to injury, didn't have as much success in the Northeast-10's, finishing sixth overall, and are currently ranked seventh in the region.  As with the women, two teams, and the top two individuals not on those two squads, will advance.

Both races will be longer than most races during the course of the season. The women's will be 6,000 meters, up from 5K, and the men's will be 10,000 meters, as opposed to the regular 8K.

The women's team had four of the top 11 finishers in the Northeast-10 championships, a group that included NE-10 Rookie of the Year Tara Dooley (Lee/Lee HS) and 2011 indoor and outdoor track All-America Amy Varsell (Burlington, Conn./Lewis S. Mills HS). Both were first-team All-NE-10 honors with Dooley the conference runner-up and Varsell placing sixth in her first race of the fall.

Junior Caitlin Fahey (Bridgewater/Coyle-Cassidy HS) and sophomore Ashley Nichols (Kenmore, Wash./Inglemoor HS) both earned second-team All-NE-10 accolades, and senior captain Evelyn Marrero (Amsterdam, N.Y./Amsterdam HS) rounds out Bentley's usual top five. Last year, the Falcons were fourth overall with Nichols earning All-Region honors with a 13th-place finish.

The top finishers for the men's team at the conference meet were juniors Rob Dextradeur (Branford, Conn./Branford HS) and Craig Robinson (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough HS), along with senior Tom Witherell (Los Alamos, N.M./Los Alamos HS). They finished 22nd, 26th and 30th, respectively, with the team's top five crossing the line within 24 seconds of each other.

At the 2010 Regional, Dextradeur had the highest finish of those three, placing 27th, with Bentley, as a team, finishing fifth.