NCAA.com Features Bentley's Tara Dooley
Amy Farnum of NCAA.com recently spoke with Bentley women's cross country runner Tara Dooley about her impressive freshman season after she had never participated in the sport before. This weekend, Dooley and her teammates are in Spokane, Wash. for the NCAA Division II Championships
Just a few months ago, running was something Bentley freshman Tara Dooley did while playing soccer or lacrosse or basketball. Today, she is one of the top distance runners in Division II.
While growing up in Lee, Mass., she never competed in cross country or track during her high school career, but her soccer coach -- a former runner - sensed Dooley might have the talent to run in college. She had competed with her father in the Josh Billings Runaground since the age of 13, running the 10K leg of the annual triathlon in Western Massachusetts with some pretty decent success.
While Dooley was just having fun with her dad, her times turned some heads. Dooley's soccer coach contacted Bentley's then-head coach Ed Lyons, who in turn, told his successor Kevin Curtin about the potential recruit.
Dooley had never thought about running cross country in college, but Curtin saw youngster's potential and began actively recruiting her.
Curtin, who had been coaching the New Balance Boston Track Club, spoke to one of his runners who competed in the Josh Billings regularly. He asked the runner to give him some perspective on Dooley's time in the race, and the two figured out she probably would have gotten third place in the Northeast-10 Championship last year. Not too shabby for someone competing just for the fun of it.
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