MANCHESTER, N.H. – Led by senior co-captains Cody Murphy (Dunbarton, N.H./Goffstown HS) and Dan Hergott (Wallingford, Conn./Xavier HS), the Bentley Universiry men's cross country team opened the season by finishing third among five teams in the 37th annual Shacklette Invitational at Saint Anselm College Saturday morning.

Bentley, with a score of 70, finished behind Southern New Hampshire University (22) and Merrimack College (49). Rounding out the field were Saint Anselm (116) and St. Michael's College (133).

Murphy, the first non-SNHU runner to cross the line, covered the 8,000-meter course in 27:18. That put him six seconds back of the winner, Cedric Jocelyn.

Hergott, with a clocking of 27:36, followed in sixth place. Bentley's top five also included junior Ben Edwards (Morristown, N.J./Morristown HS) in 22nd (28:39, senior Nick Accardi (Seekonk/Seekonk HS) in 26th (28:59) and sophomore Soham Basu (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood HS) in 30th (29:16).

Bentley will return to action Sept. 15 at the UMass-Dartmouth invitational.