Top ten national finish for Lady Buffs
(LOUISVILLE, KY) November 19, 2005 --- The Milligan College women\'s cross country team completed the 2005 season with a tenth place finish at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships Saturday morning at Louisville\'s E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park marking the highest-ever finish by a Milligan cross country team.
The Lady Buffs, who started the season outside the top 25, were again led by All-American senior Megan Lease (Camden, NC). Lease finished 15th overall, and earned her fifth All-American honor.
Junior Marta Zimon (Lodz, Poland) crossed the finish line second for Milligan in 59th place with a time of 18:55 for the 5000 meter course, while freshman Jacklyn Talbert (Mt. Carmel, Tenn.) lowered her personal best for the third time this season to 19:02, good for 67th place.
Sophomores Kortney Goulds (Johnson City, Tenn.) and Erika Fox (Gambrills, Md.) rounded out the Lady Buffs top five scorers. Goulds erased 46 seconds from her Region 12 time to run 19:36, while Fox\'s time of 20:13 was a new personal best.
Milligan finished with 345 points, seven points behind Michigan\'s Spring Arbor University. Simon Fraser won the team title with 74 points.
On the men\'s side, senior Chris Wright (Ocean City, Md.) led the Buffs three individual qualifiers over the 8k course with a 52nd place finish. Wright\'s time of 25:37 was his fastest-ever at Tom Sawyer Park.
Senior Brandon Talbert (Mt. Carmel, Tenn.) and junior Jair Collie (Johnson City, Tenn.) also recorded lifetime bests of 27:02 and 27:16, respectively.
Other Notes: the pre-race awards ceremony saw Megan Lease and Brandon Talbert earn Academic All-American honors, and the women\'s team earned All-American Scholar Team honors. Head Coach Chris Layne was named the Region 12 Women\'s Coach of the Year, and Lease was named one of 28 NAIA Champion of Character athletes. In addition, all ten competing athletes ran lifetime bests for the Tom Sawyer course.