Dominy and No. 2 Women’s Cross Country win at Appalachian Challenge

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (October 20, 2023) – Milligan University graduate student Caitlin Dominy ran the fifth-fastest women's cross country 5k in team history as Dominy and the No. 2 Buffs earned meet titles at the NAIA Appalachian Challenge on Friday morning.

The Buffs had six of the top 11 finishers in the 169-woman 5k and won the meet with a team score of 23. No. 12 Montreat finished second with a team score of 73 and No. 23 SCAD Savannah was third with 95 points.

"I really felt good about where we were coming into this meet and then we had a little bit of the sickness bug hit us in a few spots, but they didn't let that impact their performance at all today," said head coach Chris Layne. "We really hadn't had good conditions until today and love how they responded and took advantage of a great environment."

Dominy collected her first collegiate cross country victory with a time of 17:29. She moves from tied for sixth on Milligan's all-time cross country 5k leaderboard to fifth.

"Caitlin has worked so hard and it's just so rewarding to see her make the jump she has," said Layne. "She never broke 20 minutes in high school but we knew because of her track times she was capable of doing what she's done."

Ellen-Mary Kearney was the meet runner-up in 17:35 and Hannah Brown was third with a season-best time of 18:04.

Gracie Allen was ninth in 18:24, Zanelle Willemse was 10th in 18:27 and Patricia Barrera crossed 11th with a PB of 18:27.

Ashlyn Haas recorded a personal record time of 18:54 to finish 21st. Natelie Fellers was 26th in 19:04.

The Buffs return to Sequoyah Park for the Appalachian Athletic Conference Championships in two weeks.