Buffs pick up six more national qualifiers in split weekend

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 1, 2020) – One squad picked up six national qualifiers in the Strawberry Plains half marathon while another squad competed locally at ETSU's Buccaneer Invitational as the Milligan College track & field team continued indoor season Friday and Saturday.

In the half marathon

Amy Ferguson, Alex Mortimer, Andrew Burton, Cory Aulich, Eli Baldy and Evan Henson earned the national qualifiers in the marathon, joining what is becoming a long list of Buffaloes who will head to the NAIA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field National Championships later this season. Ferguson already previously qualified indoors in the 5000 meters.

"Strawberry Plains isn't a fast course so it was going to be okay if we didn't get everyone qualified today. We needed the experience," Head Coach Chris Layne said. "To knock out all of these marks this early really puts us in a good position to set things up the right way as we move through the rest of indoors and then into the outdoor season."

Ferguson placed seventh in the women's race with an 88:06. Mortimer (third), Burton (fourth) and Aulich (fifth) all went 72:12 while Baldy (seventh) finished in 72:40 and Henson (ninth) finished in 74:13. Ferguson and the top four men all hit the national A standard while Henson hit the B standard.

Small squad competes at ETSU

Also competing this weekend for the Buffs were a few who stayed local to participate at ETSU. Katlyn Haas also landed a high mark, placing third in the fast section of the women's mile with a new indoor personal best 5:10. Kelsey Mowrey also earned a personal best with a fourth-place finish in the 5k in 19:05.

In the field events, Brent Coleman jumped a season best and Appalachian Athletic Conference qualifier of 1.85 meters to finish eighth overall in the high jump.

"Due to her student-teaching schedule, Katlyn couldn't race last weekend, so it was great to see her PB and get this mile rep to sharpen up for Camel City next weekend," Layne said. "Brent got the conference mark in the high jump and Kelsey had a 5k PB on Friday night so she continues to make marked progress."

Ethan Pfister notched a season best while Matt Huff ran a personal best in the mile, placing seventh and 11th, respectively. Pfister ran 4:37 while Huff went 4:39.

"Obviously we had a small group competing this weekend, but in most cases we accomplished what was needed," Layne said. "Even where results weren't exactly what we wanted in a few events, I think we saw progress that tells us these folks are close to having breakthroughs."

Up next

Milligan has two more meets left on the indoor schedule before the AAC Championships (Feb. 20-21) and NAIA Championships (March 5-7). First up will be a trip to the Camel City Invitational next Friday-Saturday, Feb. 7-8.