With its tradition of excellence, Milligan’s indoor track team continued to break records and win titles in the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) championship that was held Feb. 14 and 15. The meet took place in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and the men’s indoor track team walked away with a second place finish while the women’s team picked up fourth place.
According to Erica Stone, a junior multi-event national qualifier, the meet’s atmosphere was more competitive than in years past. This makes the Buffs’ strong finish even more impressive.
Liz Maller, Senior, Tim Thacker, Sophomore, and Nathan Baker, Sophomore finished the two-day meet each with two AAC titles. Thacker earned his titles in the 1k and 800, Maller won both throwing events and Baker finished first in the 3k and in his Distance Medley relay which also consisted of JaMichael Glass, Ethan Pfister and Alex Mortimer.
“Conference went surprisingly well for me. I was just coming off of a spout of the flu, so it was a bit daunting to live up to my performances from earlier in the season, but I ended up getting a personal record in both of my events,” said Thacker.
Other individuals to win conference titles were: Noah Bise, Rasheem Brown, Seth Nicol, Bekah Owen, Valentina Kenjeres, Erica Stone and Gabrielle Mardis.
“Overall, I believe conference was a success,” Stone said. “We have a hashtag that is #readywhenitcounts that we use as a team, and I believe that we lived up to that.”
Milligan athletes set AAC records in 8 events over the course of the meet with Maller and Bise breaking both AAC and Milligan records in shot put and long jump respectively. To round out the positive stats of the weekend, 20 of Milligan’s runners were named All-AAC members by scoring top 3 in an event.
Though the conference championship may be over, 10 runners will travel across the country to South Dakota to compete in indoor track nationals in just two weeks.
“I’m very excited for South Dakota, not the cold part, so good thing it’s indoors, but I want to do the best I can and hopefully improve from last year,” Stone said.
The season may only have a little over two weeks left, but this meet will be the most competitive one of the season, so the athletes must be at their best.
“In terms of mental preparation, I know exactly what I need to get done,” Tons Ferguson, a junior competing in the triple jump said. “I will remind myself of the work I have put in, and I’ll trust all of the work and wisdom that my coach has imparted on me.”
Indoor Nationals took place Feb. 28 – March 1st as the concluding indoor meet of the season. The track team will begin their outdoor season this month.