No. 1 Women’s Cross Country takes down all comers at Royals Challenge

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (October 7, 2022) – The No. 1 Milligan University women's cross country team stole the show in Charlotte at the Royals Challenge as the Buffs topped the team standings of the invitational race for the second time this season.

Milligan had three finishes in the top 15 and five inside the top 40 to take the meet title over a loaded field. The Buffs finished first over seven NCAA Division I teams, two nationally-ranked NCAA Division II teams, seven regionally-ranked DII teams, two regionally ranked DIII squads and two teams receiving votes in the NAIA top 25.

The Buffs took the meet title with a team score of 75, edging host Queens by nine spots. The Buffs had half the team score of third-place Charleston, a nationally-ranked Division II team. Milligan sported a team total time of 91:06 and had a one-through five spread of 1:24. The Buffs' No. 2, 3 and 4 finishers were the top finishers at each spot in the lineup in the entire meet.

"I think the most encourage thing is we have a lot of work in our legs right now and we still were able to race the way we did - that's encouraging," said head coach Chris Layne. "It was hot today and this course gets pretty dusty when it's dry but I think our crew handled that well and in both cases got after it on the backside of the race."

Ellen Mary Kearney led Milligan and jumped up to the No. 3 spot in Milligan's all-time cross country 5k leaderboard with a time of 17:22. She finished fourth overall of 269 runners and was the second collegiate finisher at the meet.

Caitlin Dominy continued her strong senior campaign a third top-10 finish in as many outings. Dominy finished ninth in 18:03. Alyssa Bearzi followed in 22nd in 18:24.

Lizzy Lucason and Olivia Doran made it three freshmen in the Buffs' top five for the second-straight meet. Lucason placed 29th in 18:30 and Doran was 40th in 18:46.

Gracie Allen crossed 67th in 19:11 and Sophia Jeffers was 106th in 19:38.

"Ellen Mary took a nice step today, as did Sophia Jeffers and then a number of our women were right on point," said Layne.

Milligan heads to the NAIA Appalachian Challenge in Knoxville on Friday, Oct. 21 in the Buffs' final tune-up before the Appalachian Athletic Conference Championships.