Bentley Cross Country Set for Sunday’s Northeast-10 Championships in Westfield
WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley University cross country teams will be at Stanley Park in Westfield Sunday for the 2017 Northeast-10 Conference Championships with the women's race going off at 11 am and the men's following at noon.
A pre-meet poll of conference coaches forecasts the Bentley women to finish in fifth place and the Falcon men to take seventh. Last year, both Bentley teams finished in third place, but each has since lost several key performers to graduation.
Stonehill topped both polls with the men's team collecting ten of a possible 14 first-place votes and the women 13 of 14 as they vie for their 16th conference crown. American International, the host team and the defending men's champion, was second in the men's tabulations and third in the women's.
Bentley's top returning runners from last year are seniors Graham Chapski (East Greenwich, R.I./ East Greenwich HS) and Courtney Loughnane (Canton/Canton HS). Chapski was ninth in the men's race last year, covering the 8,000 meters in 25:41.4. In the women's race, Loughnane finished in 22nd with a 6,000-meter time of 23:36.2.
Chapski has run only once so far this season, finishing 23rd in the Trevecca Division II Showcase Sept. 23. Junior Cody Murphy (Dunbarton, N.H./Goffstown HS) and senior Seamus Higgins (Randolph, N.J./Randolph HS) have been the team's most consistent runners this season. Higgins has been Bentley's top finisher twice and Murphy has led the Falcons once.
For the women, sophomore Paige Fehskens (Wareham/Wareham HS) has been the first Bentley runner to finish in all four events. Loughnane has been in the top three in all four, and the top four also includes sophomore Kaileigh Wimert (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth HS) and Marianne Bartolotta (Wantagh, N.Y./Holy Trinity HS).
Following the championships, Bentley will turn its sights to the NCAA Division II East Regional, which will be held in Buffalo Nov. 4.