No. 1 Women’s Cross Country repeats as Queen City champs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 23, 2022) – The No. 1 Milligan University women's cross country team posted three top-10 finishers and captured the meet title for the second-straight season at the Queen City Invitational at McAlpine Creek Park on Friday evening.

In a 15-team field that featured a pair of NCAA Division I institutions and three regionally ranked Division II squads, Milligan posted a team score of 29 with an average 5k time of 18:07. Second place Lenior-Rhyne finished second with 67 points a team total time of 18:42, 35 seconds behind the Buffs.

"Really pleased with how both squads executed early on and then how they competed late in the race," said head coach Chris Layne. "We have looked good in training so it's great to see that carry over. I'm really impressed with how composed our younger crew have been and I think that has a lot to do with the leadership as well."

Freshman Ellen Mary Kearney dazzled in her Milligan cross country debut. She finished as the runner-up in the 144-woman field with a 5k mark of 17:36. Her time lands Kearney No. 4 on Milligan's all-time cross country 5k leaderboard, only behind All-Americans Hannah Segrave, Lemi Wutz and defending national champion Alyssa Bearzi.

"It was great to get Ellen Mary on the line tonight," said Layne. "She has a bright future and I think we'll continue to see her take steps as she settles in."

Bearzi followed Kearney with a fifth-place individual finish in 17:57. Caitlin Dominy achieved her second-straight top-10 showing to open the season with an 18:03 effort, good for eighth place.

Freshmen Lizzy Lucason and Olivia Doran rounded out Milligan's top five with top-20 finishes. Lucason crossed 11th in 18:18 and Doran was 20th in 18:44.

Making their Milligan debuts, Ashlyn Haas placed 44th with a 19:32 time, Sophia Jeffers ran 20:04 to finish 64th and Patricia Barrera was 70th in 20:11.

Milligan hosts the Eli Cramer Invitational on campus next Friday.