The Buffalo Nation was in full force this past weekend at Montreat College for the AAC Conference Championships. With all the accolades we received it’s hard to call our performance anything else but a success.
We were treated to the local Asheville hot-spot of Mellow Mushroom the night before for dinner. There is nothing like a lot of pizza, water and a great time with the entire team the night before such a big race. We returned back to our hotel, had a team meeting with Coach Layne, and then took an ice bath before getting a good night’s rest before Saturday.
The Black Mountain course was very challenging, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle. We went out very aggressively in order to try to win the title from a very strong Bryan College team, but it was their day. However, at the awards presentation our efforts were not gone unnoticed. Austin was presented the AAC Runner of the Year award, and I joined him on the All-AAC Conference Team. We also had 4 All-AAC Freshman Team runners being Ethan Johnson, David Lawler, Matt Murphy, and Jack Quesenberry. We were also fortunate to have 3 individual runners qualify for the NAIA National Championships in Vancouver, Washington being myself, Austin and Brendan Hawkins.
We would like to give thanks to all of our fans that came out and supported us through our races. On a challenging course it was a huge emotional lift. The “Milligan Fanatics” had a spirit bus, as well as a number of students and professors came out and actually outnumbered the amount of fans that showed up from Montreat (the host school)!
The 3 of us and the women’s team are extremely excited to fly out on Thursday morning for nationals. Keep us in your prayers for safe travels.
Hear the thunder, fear the herd!
Aaron Wood
