The No. 10 ranked Milligan College women's cross country team won their fourth straight Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC)/NAIA Region 12 Women's Cross Country championship Saturday morning on the grounds of Louisville\'s E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. With the win, they also earned their fourth-straight team berth to the NAIA National Championships on November 18th on the same course.
ETSU transfer MacKenzie LaBonte (Port Charlotte, Fla.) used a second place individual finish and lifetime best 5,000 meter time of 18:42 to lead Milligan\'s women, who placed three finishers in the top five. Sophomore Jacklyn Talbert (Mt. Carmel, Tenn.) followed LaBonte closely in third with a personal best time of 18:43, while freshman Rebecca McDowell (Mechanicsville, Va.) finished fourth in a new lifetime best time of 18:50.
Junior Kortney Goulds (Johnson City, Tenn.) ran fourth for Milligan with a new 5k best of 19:20, good for 9th overall, while junior Brittany Bales (Kingsport, Tenn.) also recorded a new best of 19:31 to round out Milligan\'s top five. Senior Marta Zimon (Lodz, Poland), coming off an ankle sprain earlier in the week, finished sixth for Milligan, while sophomore Ashley Pearce (St. Cloud, Fla.) rounded out the top seven in a new lifetime best mark of 19:33. In all, Milligan placed 11 women in the top 20.
\"This was a complete team effort today and I\'m so proud of how these women have responded week after week,\" said Milligan head coach Chris Layne.
Milligan\'s men also had room to celebrate as sophomore Will Frye (Pulaski, Va.) and senior Jair Collie (Johnson City, Tenn.) earned individual berths to the NAIA National Championships. Frye finished 14th overall in a new personal best 8,000 meter time of 26:45, while Collie also recorded a new lifetime best of 27:03 to make his second straight trip to the national meet.
Milligan\'s men finished third overall in the AAC, and fourth in the Region XII tally.
\"Will has shown consistency all season, and I\'m glad to see Jair feeling better after struggling with asthma and allergies most of the Fall. They both really deserve this opportunity to run at the national champs,\" said Layne.
As predicted, Virginia Intermont ran away with the men\'s team title in preparation to defend their back-to-back national titles.
Other AAC/Region 12 notes:
All-Region 12 Team
WOMEN - MacKenzie LaBonte, Jacklyn Talbert, Rebecca McDowell, Kortney Goulds, Brittany Bales,
Marta Zimon
All-AAC Team
WOMEN - MacKenzie LaBonte, Jacklyn Talbert, Rebecca McDowell, Kortney Goulds, Brittany Bales,
Marta Zimon; Ashley Pearce, Erika Fox, Nicole Moore, Emily Schmitt
MEN - Will Frye, Jair Collie
All-Freshman Team
WOMEN - Rebecca McDowell, Shanna Raines
MEN - Aaron Wood, Ben Anderson
AAC and Region 12 Women\'s Coach of the Year - Chris Layne