Milligan College, Tenn. (March 10, 2009) --- Milligan College Cross Country and Track Head Coach Chris Layne announced this week the addition of six female distance runners for the 2009-2010 school year.
Lacy Township High School senior Catie McMahon (Lanoka Harbor, NJ) leads a list of talented female student-athletes to join the national powerhouse Lady Buffs who are coming off their second consecutive top-five, and fourth consecutive top-ten cross country national championship finish.
McMahon boasts a cross country 5k best of 18:56 and received multiple All-County and All-State honors for coach Chuck Edens. On the track, McMahon owns a 3,200-meter best of 12:15. She plans to major in education, and is a member of the National Honor Society as well as the honor roll at Lacy Township.
Joining McMahon will be Daniel Boone High School’s Danielle Mitchell (Limestone, Tenn.), Dobyns-Bennett’s Lauren Hubbard(Kingsport, Tenn.), University High teammates Leah Nelson (Johnson City, Tenn.) and Natalia Rivas (Johnson City, Tenn.), and Trimble Local High School’s Heather Exline (Glouster, Ohio).
Mitchell owns a cross country best of 19:29 from the 2008 Foot Locker South Cross Country Championships, while Hubbard, a middle-distance standout on the track, finished 29th at the 2008 AAA Tennessee State Cross Country Championships in a time of 20:33.
Nelson and Rivas were both members of coach Gene Cahill's University High cross country program that won its fourth consecutive A-AA state cross country title this season. After finishing second at the 2006 state cross country meet, Nelson finished 12th in 2008 with a time of 20:54. She owns a 5k personal best of 20:02. Rivas, who ran No. 6 for the Junior Lady Bucs at this year’s state meet, finished 48th overall in a personal best time of 22:25.
Exline, coached by her father in high school, owns an 800-meter personal best of 2:25 and a 5k best of 21:49 in cross country.
“This is a talented group of young ladies that will impact our program on and off the field of play,” said Layne. “I’m confident this group will help us pick up where we left off in 08-09.”
The Lady Buffs will return their top two runners from the 08-09 cross country squad in Gillian Giffen (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Lili Zaldana (Bristol, Tenn.). Giffen will be a sophomore, while Zaldana will enter her junior year.
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MILLIGAN COLLEGE is an athletic powerhouse in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), with18 intercollegiate sports. In the past 10 years, Milligan has won 42 conference titles and made 48 national tournament appearances.
MILLIGAN COLLEGE is a nationally recognized Christian liberal arts college in Northeast, Tenn., whose vision is to change lives and shape culture through a commitment to servant leadership. The college offers more than two-dozen academic programs, including three master's degrees. To learn more about Milligan College,
visit www.milligan.edu or call 800-447-5922.