Six Buffs grab national marks at Finn Pincus

ROANOKE, Va. (Jan. 25, 2020) – The distance medley relay team of Nathan Baker, Ronan Philippot, Alex Windham and Tim Thacker earned a national qualifying mark Friday night in the distance medley relay, then Thacker (mile), Rasheem Brown (60 meter hurdles) and Tons Ferguson (triple jump) secured individual national qualifying marks Saturday, as the Milligan College track & field team kept the success rolling this weekend at Roanoke College's Finn Pincus Invitational.

Brown twice broke the facility record in the 60 hurdles, first achieving it with a time of 8.00 seconds in the prelim. He followed later in the same day by breaking his own record in the final with a time of 7.93. Both marks shattered the previous record, held by Virginia Tech's Keishaun Limehause at 8.05.

"Our crew really enjoy competing in this facility," Head Coach Chris Layne said. "It has been good to us the last few years. Rasheem, Tons and Tim were the obvious standouts the last two days, but we had a number of top eight finishes and PB's that really show we're continuing to take steps. I was really proud of our DMR teams and our women in the 600 and mile, and I thought our men ran well in the 3k."

National marks abound on busy weekend

Milligan's distance medley relay teams set the tone Friday for what proved to be a successful 36 hours. After the men opened with a win in the DMR event, Milligan's women – Gabrielle Mardis, Erica Stone, Kiley Wood and Bekah Owen, followed with a win of their own.

Friday saw a few other high finishes, including Andrew Burton and Brianna Buck with top three results in the 5k and high jump, respectively, and Halie Hawkins, who kicked off a new era of women's pole vaulting at Milligan.  

Saturday saw the trio of individual national qualifiers, and it started with Brown hurdling his way over the facility record in the first of two times accomplishing the feat. It marked the start of his 2020 hurdle campaign, and he secured a spot in the final with the fastest time by .34 seconds.

Brown then won the final by .29 seconds, posting another facility record at 7.93.

"Rasheem is just a special athlete," Layne said. "We changed things up a little bit this year so this was his first hurdle race of the season. This isn't an overly fast straightaway so to see him open in 7.93 tells us he's on track for another strong indoor season."

Thacker, already a qualifier in the 1k, grabbed another national A standard, now his third qualifying mark this season, in the mile. He placed third with a time of 4:18.86.

Rounding out the national marks was Ferguson, who competed in both the long jump and triple jump and grabbed his national standard in the latter. Ferguson's 14.40 meter jump in the triple marked his 2020 indoor debut while his long jump of 6.75 was just off his personal best of 6.77 meters.

Additional highlights from the weekend

The weekend also was full of more Appalachian Athletic Conference marks, personal bests and high finishes. Windham debuted in the 1k and notched a runner-up finish in 2:35.35 while Mitch Bronstetter and Matt Huff raced to top 10 finishes. All three secured AAC marks. Owen, Avery DeWolf and Caitlin Dominy followed with a 3-5-6 finish in the same event on the women's side, all qualifying for the AAC Championships. Maci Cloninger and Rebecca Glover finish ninth and 13th, respectively, also securing AAC marks.

In the mile, Mardis and Hannah Bell finished fourth and fifth with personal bests of 5:19.97 and 5:24.39, respectively. Ali Burns also recorded a lifetime best of 5:36.35 to finish 14th overall.

The women placed three in the top 10 in the 600 meters. Stone took sixth, Rebecca Glover eighth and Wood 10th. Rounding out the top results, the Buffs went 2-3 in the men's 3000 meters as Sam Wehner and Jake Crow ran new lifetime bests of 8:49.15 and 8:58.06.

"Across all of our event areas, it was exciting to see so many of our freshman get experience that I know will carry over as we head into the championship window of the season," Layne said.

Up next

Milligan competes again locally, heading to ETSU for the Buccaneer Invitational next weekend. It will be the first of three remaining meets on the schedule prior to the AAC Championships.