Buffaloes Indoor Track & Field Squads Excel at Visit Winston-Salem College Kick-off
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – On Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Milligan University men's and women's indoor track & field squads took part in the Visit Winston-Salem College Kick-off meet. It was a massively successful day for both squads, including a pair of school records, five national qualifiers, numerous personal bests and 39 conference qualifiers.
"It's been a busy semester for these student-athletes and we asked a lot of them this week with two meets in three days so I think it's important to note how well they handled themselves," head coach Chris Layne said. "I thought they competed extremely well today across every event area and the results show that was the case."
In chronological order, the day began with a 60m school record on the women's side, as Ariyana Green posted an 8.19-second time in her first collegiate event to become the Milligan program-record holder. Mary Custodio then posted a 60m hurdles performance of 10.40, which was a personal-best mark for her. On the men's side, Brayden Simpson's win of his heat and qualification for the final in the event was impressive at 8.46 in his collegiate debut.
Five women's 3k runners had strong showings, as Ellen-Mary Kearney posted a national qualifying time of 9:49.29, finishing second in the event. Alyssa Bearzi posted her personal-best mark of 9:58.56 in the event and became a national qualifier, as well. Ashlyn Haas finished in 10th with a 10:26.24 mark, and Gracie Franklin finished 15th in her collegiate indoor debut. Anna Jones also posted a personal-best time of 10:48.82 to finish 21st.
Maybe the most impressive performance of the day came via standout harrier Bryn Woodall, who became a national qualifier in the 3k and set a new Milligan indoor program record 8:13.18 time to finish second in the event. He also broke the previous meet record time in the race. Winston Telford added to that impressive day by becoming a national qualifier with a 4th-place finish and an 8:26.97 time. Sylas Chambers finished 10th and had a personal-best time of 8:43.18.
"Man, what some of our distance folks did with those triples this week really sets a tone for what we can do heading into the next semester," Layne added.
On the field, Zion Reddick finished 20th with a 12.91m toss and Dillon Handshey had a personal-best throw of 11.63m in the shot put.
Phillip Lotivio became the Milligan program's record holder in the men's pole vault with a 4.40m vault over the bar to finish third in his first ever collegiate event. Keri Belcher came in sixth on the women's side in the pole vault, reaching a 2.75m height.
Carter Windham posted a men's 800m time of 1:57.44 to place second in the event for Milligan.
Hunter Crook provided a 23.02 in the men's 200m to finish in ninth place, while Simpson and Kaleb Spears came away with personal-best times of 23.49 and 23.54 in the event, as well.
The women's and men's miles were two more races that Milligan competed admirably in, with Kearney earning a nationals qualification at 4:57.36, Bearzi posting a top-eight finish with a time of 5:12.96 and personal-bests from Haas and Jones on the women's side. For the men, Woodall became a national qualifier and set the meet record in the mile at 4:11.88, with Telford finishing in the top 10 and Zimri Kuhn coming away with a personal-best.
In the weight throw on the field, Faith Helton finished 22nd with a personal-best toss of 11.04m as the top Buffs finisher. For the men, it was Corey Greeson who finished 17th and had his best throw in over a year while narrowly missing his personal-best mark.
"I am proud of our staff," Layne stated. "This is an entirely new group of assistants and they've done an excellent job of helping us keep the momentum we had coming off the 2023-24 season."
The semester break will give a chance to the student-athletes to recuperate and continue their training for the VMI Invitational in Lexington, Va. on January 24-25 of 2025.