Thacker, Brown, Buffs finish another successful Camel City

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Feb. 8, 2020) – Junior Tim Thacker ran two of the top times in the country this weekend, Rasheem Brown picked up the top time in the 60 meter hurdles, and the Milligan College track & field team continued their indoor campaign with another series of high marks Friday and Saturday at the Camel City Invitational.

The Buffs notched national qualifying marks by Thacker, Nathan Baker, Erica Stone and Katlyn Haas in the 1k; Baker, Sam Wehner, Haas and Gabrielle Mardis in the 3k; Thacker in the mile; Bekah Owen and Avery DeWolf in the 5k; and Brown in the 60 meter hurdles.

"This was probably one of the more competitive efforts I've seen from our team indoors," Head Coach Chris Layne said after the meet. "This meet is always an important indicator for the rest of the indoor season because of the competitive depth of the fields. They stayed composed, executed well and knocked out about every goal we set coming in."

Thacker leads NAIA in mile, Brown No. 1 in 60 hurdles

Thacker opened the weekend with the NAIA's top time in the mile, 4:11.32, which is over three seconds faster than anyone else in the nation. It marked a personal best and helped him finish runner-up.

Less than 24 hours later, Thacker followed up his top mile time with the No. 3 time in the 1k. At 2:28.43, his time is a quarter of a second off the nation's best, and the junior once again finished runner-up with a personal best.

Brown also posted a stellar weekend as he successfully defended his 60 meter hurdle title from last season, winning this year's event in a personal best and Milligan record 7.78. He won his heat and led all qualifiers in the semis of the event before scorching the rest of the field by 0.1 seconds in the final. At 7.78, Brown's time ranks No. 1 in the NAIA.

"Rasheem and Tim are just very talented young men and their performances certainly indicated they're both in a good place less than a month away from nationals," Layne said.

National qualifiers abound once again

Thacker was one on a long list of national qualifiers for Milligan. Baker hit two standards of his own, 2:32.88 in Saturday's 1k after running 8:36.73 in Friday's 3k. Wehner followed suit in the latter event, as well, hitting the national B standard in the 3k with a personal best 8:43.08.

On the women's side, Haas led the way with a pair of national qualifiers, running 3:03.47 in the 1k after running 10:15.40 in the 3k. Stone (3:02.13) joined Haas in that category in the 1k while Mardis (10:24.37) joined Haas in that category in the 3k. All four times marked personal bests.

Rounding out the top results were Owen and DeWolf, who ran 17:58.27 and 18:03.24, respectively, in the 5k, both posting top 10 finishes and new indoor personal bests with the national A standard.

After the meet, the Buffs stuck around to watch the professionals compete, an important experience Layne said. "For our crew to be able to stay around after they competed and watch the professionals compete is certainly inspiring, and this element of the meet is unique because they can get up close and personal and see how it's done at the next level."

Up next

Milligan heads to the VMI Indoor Classic next weekend for the final tune-up prior to the Appalachian Athletic Conference Championships, which are set for Thursday-Friday, Feb. 20-21.