No. 4 Men’s Cross Country dominates NAIA Southern States Challenge

BLUFFTON, S.C. (October 23, 2021) – The No. 4 Milligan University men's cross country team lived up to its billing as the highest-ranked team in the south as the Buffs placed six finishers in the top nine and took first place at the second annual NAIA Southern States Challenge, hosted by USC-Beaufort on Saturday morning.

Milligan excelled in the 141-man 8k race, winning the event with a team score of 20, 31 points ahead of No. 17 Montreat, who finished second at 51 points. The Buffs' average time of 25:12 was 36 seconds faster than the second-place Cavaliers.

"We've run here a number of times but this was a new course layout so I was anxious to see how this impacted times," said head coach Chris Layne. "There were definitely some challenging elements with soft footing, rough footing and a bunch of turns but I felt like both squads did a nice job with the elements and I think all things equal we had a number of them on both sides see their best overall effort of the season."

Per usual, Milligan posted an impressive spread of 40 seconds (24:55-25:35) for its top five and had a distance of one minute and eight seconds for its top seven.

Aaron Jones took home the individual meet title with an effort of 24:55. Eli Cramer followed in second place at 24:58 and Will Stockley finished third in 25:07.

Nathan Baker was sixth in 25:25, Bryn Woodall logged a 25:35 to take eighth and Jake Crow placed ninth at 25:42. Alex Mortimer rounded out Milligan's top seven with a 13th-place finish in 26:03.

Pablo Rivas (26:15) crossed 16th, Alex Brittain was 18th (26:20) and Ethan Pfister was 21st (26:27) as Milligan accounted for 10 of the first 21 finishers in the race.

David Crow posted a PB at 27:06 to finish 42nd. Sylas Chambers joined him in the top 50 at 46th in 27:12. Thomas Johnson also notched a collegiate-best 8k at 27:29.5

"This team has the type of depth where someone is always going to step up," said Layne. "Baker had an issue mid-race but then you have Bryn turn a corner today. Jake and Pablo are working their way back and I expect both of them to be in the mix and of course you can't say enough about Aaron and Eli and then you have Will and Alex M. being so consistent all season. I have to mention we also had a bunch of young guys step up and run really well today - Alex B, David Crow and a few others."

Saturday marked the final regular season event for the Buffs, who turn their attention to the AAC Cross Country Championship in Canton, Ga. in two weeks.