It didn’t take freshman Ashley Nichols long to insert her name on the top-10 list for the Bentley University (Waltham, Mass.) women’s indoor track team.

Making her collegiate debut at the Reggie Lewis Center in the season-opening Jay Carisella Invitational Dec. 4, Nichols — an Inglemoor High graduate — debuted at No. 6 on Bentley’s all-time list in the 5,000 meters with a time of 18 minutes, 52.76 seconds. She finished 12th of 19 in the race, with only five of the 11 in front of her competing for collegiate teams.

Bentley’s final meet before the exam and semester break is the Harvard Invitational Dec. 18.

Last month, Nichols led the charge for Bentley with a 13th-place finish in the NCAA Division II East Regional cross-country meet at Franklin Park in Boston. Bentley finished fourth out of 28 teams and missed advancing to nationals by eight points.

Nichols took 13th in the field of 187 to earn All-East honors with a time of 23:35 over the 6,000-meter course and was second among freshmen, finishing 28 seconds and five places behind Emily Regan of Stonehill College.

Stonehill easily took the team title with a score of 42, and the College of Saint Rose was the other team to qualify for nationals with a score of 131. Southern Connecticut State took third at 136 and Bentley came in with a 139. UMass-Lowell (144) completed the top five.