Indoor Track season begins at Ben Martin 1st Chance Indoor/Outdoor Meet

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (November 28, 2023) – The Milligan University indoor track & field teams began their 2023-24 campaigns at the Ben Martin First Chance Indoor/Outdoor Meet at Oak Ridge High School on Tuesday. The Buffs notched three national qualifiers in the opener.

"Today was a great opportunity to get a lot of folks transitioned to indoors and to get a feel for how they're going to handle themselves in less than ideal conditions," said head coach Chris Layne. "Definitely saw a bunch of bright spots on the sprints, jumps, hurdles and throws side and felt we ran well in both the 3k and 5k races. For the crew coming off cross nationals, we wanted to use the fitness they have to try and notch as many conference and national marks as possible."

Ellen-Mary Kearney and Caitlin Dominy both punched their tickets for the NAIA National Championships as automatic qualifiers in the 5k. Kearney took the meet title with a time of 17:22.57 and Dominy was the runner-up in 17:25.29. Hannah Brown was third in 18:10.81, Patricia Barrera placed fourth in 18:12.05 and Zanelle Willemse crossed fifth in 18:19.10. Ashlyn Haas (18:29.58), Kaelyn Slaughter (18:35.42) and Natalie Fellers (18:38.28) also recorded top-10 finishes.

Aaron Jones hit the NAIA "A" standard in the 5k in 14:44.74. Zimri Kuhn (15:02.40), Josh Hale (15:03.37) and Arran Kearney (15:13.77) joined Jones as top-10 finishers in the 5k.

Carter Windham won the 600 in 1:25.42 and posted a personal record time of 2:32.64 in the 1k. Roman Hodgson was fourth in the 600 (1:27.21) and fifth in the 1k (2:39.04).

Hope Krell picked up wins in the 600 (1:46.22) and 1k (3:09.84) in her collegiate track debut. McKenzie Fitzgerald won the 3k in 11:23.48 and crossed second in the 1k in 3:13.43.

Keith Fletcher nearly achieved a national qualifying mark in the 60-meter hurdles as he took the meet title in 8.34. Reese Pesterfield finished third in 9.37.

Skylan Stephens ran to a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash (22.49) and was third in the 60-meter dash (7.14). Romario Taylor was second in the 60 (7.09) and Evan Hayes crossed third in the 200 (23.30).

Megan Christian finished second in the 200 (27.86) and fifth in the 60 (8.36).

Tate Bowland (9:16.95) was second and Josh Osorio (9:19.28) finished third in the 3k.

Kacey Webb won the women's weight throw with a heave of 12.57 meters. Autumn Stanley finished second in the triple jump (10.06 meters) and Hannah Manns was third (10.04 meters). Manns added a third-place finish in the long jump (4.63 meters). Macy Hinkle finished as the runner-up in the high jump (1.48 meters).

Conner Mowell was second in the high jump (1.75 meters), Jamison Hunt was third in the triple jump (11.84 meters) and Corey Greeson finished fourth in the weight throw (13.19 meters).

Milligan returns to action at the JDL Early Bird Invitational on Dec. 3.