Alyssa Bearzi takes individual title as Women’s Cross Country wins first-ever NAIA National Championship

VANCOUVER, Wash. (November 19, 2021) – Alyssa Bearzi out-kicked the competition to win the NAIA individual national title and the Milligan University women's cross country team won its first-ever NAIA National Championship at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Championship Course on Friday.

Milligan concludes the 2021 season undefeated against NAIA opponents. The Buffs had a program-record three All-Americans as three of the top 11 finishers were Milligan runners, which pused the Buffs' all-time women's cross country All-American count to 16. Milligan's winning team score of 122 was 19 points ahead of second place St. Francis.

"In this field, our ladies had to be darn near perfect today and they were," said head coach Chris Layne. "I've said this before, but this is such a talented and resilient bunch and they absolutely put it together when it counted the most. I'm so happy for all of them."

Bearzi entered the final lap of the race in third place and tracked down the leaders over the last 2k, kicking her way to an 18:14, capturing the individual national championship by two seconds, in 18:14. She bested a field of 338 runners en route to Milligan's first-ever individual cross country title.

"Alyssa really started to turn the corner at the right time, so I felt both she and Lemi had a shot today," said Layne. "They have worked in tandem and definitely helped each other take another step."

Grad student Lemi Wutz reeled in her third NAIA cross country All-American honor and national top-10 showing, the first two coming as an undergrad at SCAD-Savannah. Wutz finished fifth overall in 18:29, her best-ever finish at an NAIA Cross Country National Championship race.

Avery DeWolf Burton became the fourth two-time women's cross country All-American in school history, following in the footsteps of Milligan Hall of Famers Hannah Segrave, Gillian Giffen Johnson and Megan Lease. She placed 11th in her final go-around at cross country nationals with an 18:38 effort.

Junior Caitlin Dominy finished 61st in 19:17 and sophomore Gracie Allen completed Milligan's top five in 73rd (19:24). The Buffs recorded a one-through-five spread of 1:10 in the championship-winning effort.

Senior Gabrielle Mardis ran 19:35 to finish 95th and Ali Burns rounded out the Buffs' championship unit in 21:15.

Milligan became the third school to ever capture both NAIA Men's and Women's Cross Country National Championships in the same season as the men's cross country squad also took home an NAIA National Championship with four All-Americans and a team score of 115. Layne captured NAIA Coach of the Year honors on the men's and women's side.