JOHNSON CITY, TN (January 27, 2007) --- It was another historic day for the Milligan College track and field team at the Niswonger Invitational at ETSU's Memorial Center as junior MacKenzie LaBonte (Port Charlotte, Fla.) led the Buffs and Lady Buffs with a win in the women\'s invitational mile. Her time of 5:11.88 was a new lifetime best and an automatic national qualifier.
LaBonte also ran the opening leg on Milligan\'s distance medley relay team that finished third, smashed the school record by 35 seconds and recorded an automatic national qualifier with their time of 12:22. Joining LaBonte on the relay was junior Brittany Bales (Kingsport, Tenn.), junior Kortney Goulds (Johnson City, Tenn.) and sophomore Jacklyn Talbert (Mt. Carmel, Tenn.)
Alabama-Birmingham won the race, with Samford finishing second.
\"MacKenzie executed the race plan perfectly and used her speed to get away for the win,\" said Milligan coach Chris Layne.
Freshman Rebecca McDowell (Mechanicsville, Va.) started the day off with a fourth-place finish in the women\'s 5,000 meters in a new lifetime best time of 17:57. Her time currently ranks in the top-five nationally and is well under the automatic national mark of 18:30. Also running well in the 5,000 meters was junior Erika Fox (Gambrills, Md.) in 12th with a time of 19:03, sophomore Nicole Moore (Boise, Idaho) ran 19:20 to finish 13th and sophomore Emily Schmitt (Avon, Ind.) crossed the line in 19:24, resulting in a 16th place finish. All three women ran personal bests on the day.
In the women\'s 3,000 meters, sophomore Ashley Pearce (St. Cloud, Fla.) finished 5th in a new lifetime best time of 10:49.
Freshman Aaron Wood (Aurora, Colo.) led Milligan men with a 2nd place finish in the unseeded 800 meters in a new indoor best time of 1:57.24. Wood\'s time was just .34 seconds shy of the indoor national standard. Junior Jair Collie (Johnson City, Tenn.) finished 7th in the men\'s invitational mile, just a second shy of his indoor personal best. Sophomore Will Frye (Pulaski, Va.) also celebrated a lifetime best time of 16:08 in the men\'s 5,000 meters to finish sixth in section two of the event.
In all, both squads recorded eleven personal bests during the two-day track meet.
\"This was an exciting day for our program. We\'ll see this track again at nationals, so the experience was priceless,\" commented Layne.