Allen, Jones, Fellers, McDermott, Burns and Slaughter lead No.1 Women’s XC at Eli Cramer Invite

MILLIGAN, Tenn. (September 30, 2022) – The No. 1 Milligan women's cross country had five of the top 10 finishers at the Eli Cramer Invitational on the campus of Milligan University on Friday afternoon.

The meet was the third on-campus cross country race in program history and named after All-American Eli Cramer, who tragically died last spring.

"Eli loved to race and there's no better way to celebrate his legacy than having these Buffs line up and compete," said head coach Chris Layne. "I know how proud he is watching this crew work to defend those national titles he was a huge part of and you could see that effort in how both teams got after it today - top to bottom."

The three-mile meet featured local competitors Tusculum and Montreat. Milligan took first of the three teams at the race with a team score of 20.

Gracie Allen was the Buffs' top finisher and individual runner-up with a time of 19:00. Allen's time was the fourth-fastest three-mile effort in program history and first entry onto the team's all-time leaderboard at that distance since 2015.

Anna Jones was fourth in 19:30, Natalie Fellers followed in fifth in 19:40, Annie Kate McDermott placed sixth in 19:47 and Kaelyn Slaughter made it five Buffs in the top 10 as she finished ninth (20:09).

"I thought our women's sophomore crew really stood out today," said Layne. "Anna Jones, Annie Kate McDermott and Natalie Fellers."

Isabelle Johnson (15th), Marinda Walls (17th), Camila Rivas (18th), Lauren Spry (20th) and Grace Krell (22nd) also finished for the Buffs in the Eli Cramer Invitational.

"While this course is relatively flat, they're navigating a lot of turns each loop, so seeing so many positive results is a sign we continue to trend in the right direction," said Layne.

The Buffs return to Charlotte for the Royals Challenge next Friday.