Jones, No. 9 Buffs AAC champions

SWANNANOA, N.C. (Nov. 14, 2020) – The perfect season continued Saturday morning for the No. 9 Milligan University men's cross country team. Freshman Aaron Jones ran away with the individual title, and the Buffs placed five in the top six to secure their fourth Appalachian Athletic Conference championship in the last six years. Jones won the race by 36 seconds while Milligan was four points away from a perfect score.

"I am extremely proud of both of these squads, and not because we just won two conference titles, but because of how they've handled the COVID-19 situation," Head Coach Chris Layne said. "They've sacrificed a lot to get to this point, and I am so happy they were able to see this season to the end and without one positive case."

Jones earned AAC Runner of the Year honors with a personal best winning 8k time of 25:10.94. No. 12 Montreat's Moses Dirane (25:46) earned runner-up, and the next four finishers came from Milligan.

Tim Thacker (25:54), Eli Cramer (26:11), Nathan Baker (26:30) and Alex Mortimer (26:31) rounded out Milligan's scoring.

"Coming into this weekend, I really felt good about the men fitness-wise and then they have just had a different level of energy," Layne added. "This is an extremely special bunch, and they are dialed in so I had a lot of trust in what they were ready to do."

Other finishers for Milligan were Sam Wehner (26:51), Ethan Pfister (26:58), Pablo Rivas (27:14), Andrew Burton (27:15), Eli Baldy (27:38), Jake Crow (27:42), Evan Henson (27:48), Matt Huff (27:58), Tyler Bates (28:04), Jake Domermuth (29:15), Chris Upham (30:04) and Luke Avery (30:27). In all, the Buffs claimed 14 of the top 25 spots.

Team scoring | history

Milligan crushed the team scoring with 19 points compared to No. 12 Montreat, the runner-up, which finished with 47 points. Reinhardt, which is receiving votes toward the NAIA top 25, claimed 105 points in third place.

Avery DeWolf led No. 5 Milligan with the individual AAC crown on the women's side. It marked the first time since 2015 that Milligan swept both the men's and women's titles in the same year.

The win this year for Milligan's men marked their sixth team win in six events. Jones won his second straight race after finishing in the top three in every competition of the season. He also was coming off AAC and NAIA runner of the week honors following his victory in the AAC Preview.

"You don't see many freshmen with the composure of Aaron Jones," Layne added on the effort of Jones. "He has been able to jump right in and take care of business, and that is rare. In fairness, Eli Cramer is not far behind him. The leadership from our talented upperclassmen has really paved the way for these younger guys to adjust pretty quickly."

All-AAC accolades

In addition to winning AAC Runner of the Year, Jones was the first representative of Milligan on the All-Conference first team. Thacker, Cramer, Baker and Mortimer joined Jones on the All-AAC first team. Wehner, Pfister, Rivas and Burton earned All-AAC second team.

Recap of last year

Baker and Thacker were the top two finishers for Milligan and the top two finishers of the race. The Buffs put four in the top 10 individually, with Mortimer taking fifth, Crow taking ninth, Rivas taking 16th and Burton taking 17th. Graduated senior Mitch Bronstetter finished 13th.

Up next

Milligan will next be in action in the spring, as the NAIA Men's and Women's Cross Country National Championships are currently set for Friday, April 9, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Last year, the Buffs finished eighth on the women's side and 14th on the men's side.