EASTON, Mass. – Led by a second-straight fourth-place finish by senior tri-captain Julia Morena (Boylston/Tahanto Reg. HS), the Bentley University Falcons finished third among 15 teams during the Northeast-10 Conference Women's Cross Country Championships Saturday at Stonehill College.

Morena matched her fourth place finish from a year ago, covering the 6,000-meter course in 22:19.1. She finished 52.9 seconds back of repeat champion Nicole Borofski of Stonehill (21:26.2), a slight improvement from last year's 54.7 differential, and missed a top three finish by only 2.7 seconds.

In the team standings, Bentley bested Merrimack by 18, 131-149, in the battle for third place. Stonehill placed seven runners in the top 15 to repeat as champions and the Skyhawks score of 40 was less than half of runner-up Assumption College's 82.

Bentley also received a strong showing from junior Courtney Loughnane (Canton/Canton HS), who improved on her 2015 finish by 15 places. She was 22nd overall in 23:36.2 and missed a top 20 performance by just a half-second.

Other top 40 runners for the Falcons were senior Katie Burke (Braintree/Braintree HS) and junior Marianne Bartolotta (Wantagh, N.Y./Holy Trinity HS). Burke was 32nd in 23:57.5 and Bartolotta's 24:10.2 put her in 35th.

Borofski earned her championship by reaching the line 42.3 seconds in front of her nearest challenger, Southern Connecticut's Natasha Fitzpatrick.

Bentley will return to action Nov. 12 when the NCAA Division II East Region is contested at the State Fairgrounds in Hopkinton, N.H.