Milligan Men's Cross Country Posts Runner-Up Finish at NAIA National Championships
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Milligan University men's cross country team compiled a runner-up finish out of 36 teams at the NAIA Men's Cross Country National Championships at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo. on Friday.
The Buffs jockeyed at the top of the leaderboard with the College of Idaho Yotes for the majority of the race, ultimately ending the race with 96 points. That total was just three points higher than their championship total of 93 from 2023 in Vancouver, Wash. The Yotes posted an 87-point total to win the event. Milligan has now finished first (2021, 2023) or second (2022, 2024) in each of the last four national championship races.
"I am extremely proud of this squad and how they represented our program on the national stage yet again," head coach Chris Layne said. "This league is so competitive at the top so we just really wanted to keep the focus on each athlete being the best version of themselves on the day. We had PB's from five of our seven men with five all-American honors, so they deserve a tremendous amount of credit for how they performed."
Bryn Woodall paced the Buffs with a fifth-place run, pacing himself at 23:49.5, which is the third-fastest time of his storied career on cross country courses.
Winston Telford posted a masterful last half of the race, finishing 14th overall and 12th in the scoring with a 24:19.3 clip that blew his previous personal-best mark out of the water. He gained 12 spots in the final 4k of the event. Additionally, he cut nearly 40 seconds off his record, as he posted a 24:56.2 back in 2022 as a member of the Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers.
Blake Hipkiss (27th, 22 points) and Zimri Kuhn (29th, 24 points) were the Buffaloes' next two finishers, posting times of 24:32.0 and 24:33.4, respectively. For both of them, the times were personal-best marks, which both runners had already reset this season on another occasion.
Bryson Lewis was 39th overall and scored 33 points to round out the Milligan top five. He crossed the line in 24:39.8, which was yet another personal-best clip for the Buffs. Four of the Buffaloes' five scoring finishers earned personal-best times on the highest stage in the NAIA.
Sylas Chambers (87th, 25:05.2) and Douglas Cornfield (197th, 25:49.5) rounded out the seven-man squad for Milligan.
The men posted a new team time record on the day, as well. As an additional plus, the two Milligan squads together combined for the team title, which is an outstanding feat.
"We saw incredible leadership yet again this year," said Layne, "and I can't say enough about our seniors that have been with us for four years - Bryn, Zimri, Sylas and Sam. They've done a fabulous job of not only representing Milligan, but keeping this culture in the right place."
Milligan now has a total of 29 All-Americans, as the Buffs had all five of their counting runners (Woodall, Telford, Hipkiss, Kuhn and Lewis) earn the distinction, which is the fifth straight year that four or more Buffs have earned the title. It is Woodall's third career honor in cross country, and Lewis' second. Meanwhile, the remaining three earned their first NAIA All-American honors in cross country.
"It's hard enough to have one team on the podium, let alone two," Layne said in reference to both the men and women reaching the podium. "To see them walk away with the combined team title again is always incredibly rewarding and I think that speaks to the commitment made by a lot of folks from our administration to our student-athletes."