WALTHAM, Mass. – The top three runners on the Bentley University women's cross country team, including NCAA Division II All-Americas Tara Dooley (Lee/Lee HS) and Amy Varsell (Burlington, Conn./Lewis S. Mills HS), have been selected for the 2013 Academic All-Northeast-10 Conference women's cross country team.

Joining Dooley and Varsell was senior Ashley Nichols (Kenmore, Wash./Inglemoor HS). It was the second time each have earned the honor in cross country, although ironically the first time they've been recognized in the same year. Varsell previously earned the recognition in 2010, Nichols in 2011 and Dooley in 2012.

Dooley, a junior with a 3.88 GPA in accountancy, earned All-America honors with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the highest by a conference runner at the nationals since 2006. She finished first in the NCAA Division II East Regional after placing second the previous two seasons, and was recognized as both the Northeast-10 Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year and the 2013 USTFCCCA East Region Runner of the Year.

Varsell, whose career resume includes two Capital One NCAA Division II Academic All-America awards and seven Academic All-NE-10 selections, earned her sixth career All-America award by finishing 39th at the nationals. The graduate student finished second to Dooley in the East Regional and was also the runner-up in the Northeast-10 Championships. She's working on her Masters of Science in Accountancy after graduating Summa Cum Laude last May.

Nichols joined her two teammates on the USTFCCCA All-East Region and first-team All-NE-10 teams after placing sixth in the conference championships and eighth in the regional meet. During her four seasons, she was one of Bentley's top four in all 23 races she participated in. Like Varsell and Dooley, she's excelled in the classroom with a 3.63 GPA as a computer information systems major.

Bentley was the only institution to have multiple selections on the nine-person team.