The BU men’s and cross country teams head to Albany this weekend for the America East Championships. The Bearcat women will take part in the 5K race at 10:30 while the men will race in the 8K one hour later. Although they lost most of their top seven runners from last year’s second-place squad, the Binghamton men’s squad could pull off its fourth consecutive top-three performance this weekend. Junior Vasili Papastrat was 18th overall at last seasons event. Fellow juniors Jason Santos and Anthony Gaetani along with sophomore Chris Fernandez will all be making their first appearance in the America East meet but have each significantly improved from last season. Freshmen Colin Frost and Cal Michaels have been the top two newcomers on this year’s squad. Frost was the team’s top finisher at the season-opening Cornell Invitational while Michael’s finishes a program-best seventh overall at the Albany Invitational two weeks ago. Fellow rookies Matt Johnson and Jesse Garn have also been mainstays in the Bearcats’ top seven this year. On the women’s side, graduate student Ashley Horton and juniors Rachel Miura and Linday Raulli are the top veterans entering Saturday’s event. Horton, who was 16th overall in the 2007 race, was a team-best 16th at the Albany Invitational on Oct. 15. Miura was named all-conference in 2009 after placing 10th in the America East race. Raulli, meanwhile, was the team MVP last season. Sophomore Cailtin Jelinek, who was Binghamton’s top runner in the season-opening meet at Cornell, is the other top Bearcat runner entering this weekend. The women’s squad has placed seventh in each of the past two seasons.