May 22, 2007 --- The Milligan College women's track and field team traveled five women to Fresno, California Tuesday morning for the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships held on the campus of Fresno Pacific University May 24th through the 26th. In all, Milligan qualified seven individuals but senior Josh Ferry (Bloomington, Ind.) and junior Kortney Goulds (Johnson City, Tenn.) will not compete.
"Our primary focus is to run as fast as we can, we're not worried about points, this will be about individual performances," said head coach Chris Layne.
Leading Milligan's women will be 1500 meter school record holder and indoor All-American MacKenzie LaBonte (Port Charlotte, Fla.). LaBonte, along with sophomore Jacklyn Talbert (Mt. Carmel, Tenn.), will compete in the 1500 meters. LaBonte's schedule won't be as hectic as indoor nationals where she competed in two rounds of the Distance Medley Relay and two rounds of the 3000 meters. Both women will only run rounds of the 1500 meters on Thursday afternoon and then the final on Saturday if they advance. Talbert, a double indoor All-American in the mile and DMR, is seeded 9th going into the event.
Three other Milligan women will compete in the marathon by virtue of their qualifiers earlier this year at the Strawberry Plains Half Marathon. Competing this year are junior Erika Fox (Gambrills, Md.), along with sophomores Nicole Moore (Boise, Ida.) and Emily Scmitt (Avon, Ind.). Fox is coming off the 10k win at the AAC Outdoor Track and Field Champs, while Moore won the 3000 meter steeplechase title. Schmitt finished third in the women's 5000 meters.
"It's simple, anything can happen when your race covers 26.2 miles," said Layne.
At last year's marathon championships, Lady Buff All-American Megan Lease finished 12th overall, while the Buffs Brandon Talbert finished 21st on the men's side. The NAIA is the only collegiate governing body that offers the marathon as a national championship.
For complete event coverage visit www.naia.org or www.cfpitiming.com.