Buffs open AAC championships with six titles
Day one of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships was a good one for Milligan College. The No. 14 men are currently sitting in second place while the Milligan women are in a tie for the top spot. The two-day event started Thursday at JDL Fast Track.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Feb. 20, 2020) – Day one of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships was a good one for Milligan College. The No. 14 men are currently sitting in second place while the Milligan women are in a tie for the top spot. The two-day event started Thursday at JDL Fast Track.
Milligan picked up AAC titles in both 1k races, both distance medley relays, the men's 60-meter dash and the men's triple jump.
"I'm extremely proud of both squads tonight," Head Coach Chris Layne said after the conclusion of the first day. "I'm not sure we could have squeezed out points anywhere else. Tomorrow is a much bigger day and we'll have to keep this momentum or it can get away from you fast because of the depth of this conference."
Milligan's top performers
Tim Thacker (1k, 2:30.64) and the women's distance medley relay team lived up to their pre-meet No. 1 seeding to pick up AAC titles. Thacker successfully defended his AAC title from last year and led a trio of Buffs to a 1-3-4 finish as Nathan Baker took third and Sam Wehner took fourth.
The women's DMR team was made up of Kiley Wood, Maci Cloninger, Rebecca Glover and Gabrielle Mardis and won the event in 13:04.99.
Several other Buffs posted upsets in their events. Rasheem Brown entered as the No. 4 seed in the 60 meters and ran the top time in both the prelim (6.89) and final (6.84), both national A standards in setting a new personal best and Milligan record.
Tons Ferguson was the No. 3 seed in the triple jump but came away with the title with an AAC championship record 14.56-meter mark.
Katlyn Haas (1k, 3:03.75) and the men's DMR (10:59.77) were the No. 2 seeds in their events before moving up one spot to take the AAC crown. Haas led a group of six Buffs in the top seven in the 1k as the Buffs picked up big points in the event. Ethan Pfister, Skylan Stephens, Matt Huff and Mitch Bronstetter represented the men's DMR team which stormed back from fourth place to win the event on Bronstetter's finishing 1600-meter leg.
AAC Champions
Rasheem Brown – 60-meter dash
Katlyn Haas – 1000 meters
Tim Thacker – 1000 meters
Kiley Wood, Maci Cloninger, Rebecca Glover, Gabrielle Mardis – Women's DMR
Ethan Pfister, Skylan Stephens, Matt Huff, Mitch Bronstetter – Men's DMR
Tons Ferguson – Triple Jump
Up next
Day two of the AAC Championships is set for Friday.