Four Men’s Cross Country/Track student-athletes earn Academic All-America honors from CSC

AUSTIN, Texas (June 29, 2023) – A quartet of Milligan University men's cross country and track & field student-athletes were honored as Academic All-America honorees by the College Sports Communicators on Thursday.

Rising senior Aaron Jones, graduate student Will Stockley and 2023 graduate Jake Crow were named to the NAIA cross country/track Academic All-America First Team. Evan Henson, a 2023 graduate, earn Academic All-America Second Team applause. The group joins Tim Thacker ('21) as the only Academic All-Americans in program history and are the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th in school history.

"A lot of pride in what our student-athletes are accomplishing in the classroom," said head coach Chris Layne. "That's a massive part of who we are and why they're at Milligan University. Hats off to this group as well as the rest of our program for setting the bar high."

Jones is a history and humanities major with a 3.57 cumulative grade point average. He completed an All-America triple crown for the second-straight year as he claimed All-America honors in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Jones was tabbed as the 2022 USTFCCCA National Scholar-Athlete of the Year in NAIA men's cross country.

Jones ran to his third cross country All-America award with a fourth-place finish at the 2022 NAIA National Championships, the highest individual placement in team history. He claimed the NAIA national title in the indoor 5k with a school record time of 14:26.68 and capped the year with a third-place showing in the 10k in a school record time of 30:22.15.

Stockley has a 4.0 GPA while pursuing a Master of Arts in Humanities. Like Jones he completed an All-America triple crown for the second-consecutive season in 2022-23. Stockley ran to a ninth-place finish at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships and placed fourth in the mile and helped the Buffs to a sixth-place showing in the distance medley relay at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field National Championships. He closed the year with a sixth-place finish in the 5k.

Crow graduated in April with a 3.97 GPA as a double major in computer science and information systems. A two-time individual All-American, Crow finished 38th at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships in 2022 to earn All-America honors. He also secured All-America laurels in the indoor 3k in 2021. He was a three-time All-Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) honoree in cross country.

Jones, Stockley and Crow each scored for the Buffs when they claimed the NAIA national championship in cross country in 2021 and in Milligan's runner-up showing in 2022.

Henson earned a degree in information systems with a 3.81 GPA in April. He was a three-time individual national qualifier for the Buffs in track & field. He finished ninth in the half marathon at the 2022 NAIA National Championships and 13th in the marathon at the 2021 NAIA National Championships. Henson ran to a runner-up finish in the 10k at the AAC Championships in 2022.

Milligan's men's cross country and track program earned top-10 national finishes at the NAIA cross country and indoor track national championship meets in 2022-23. The Buffs were honored as the No. 7 program in the NAIA USTFCCCA Program of the Year standings.