Cross country Scots take second at MC Invitational

Lea Mulligan led the rest of the squad to a solid second place finish at the Maryville College Invitational on Sept. 27. Mulligan finished second in the event, but the first place finisher was an independent, which allowed Lilly Simms to come in on a close third for the official runners.  This solidified the Scots for a second place finish. 

This was Simms’ third top-three finish, which is just as many races as she’s participated in. Coach Murphy has been raving about Simms since her joining the squad, and this finish only solidifies his well-placed faith in her.

Covenant College of Georgia placed first over the Scots on the basis that they had six runners finish in the top ten with a seventh runner at 12. Mulligan sat down and spoke to Sports Information Staff about her first-place finish. 

“I’m excited because it was on our home course,” Mulligan said. She continued to speak after the race: “We do workouts here twice a week, so it’s nice to have a mantra on all the hills. Going forward, I’m super excited because we have a lot of flat courses coming up. We’ll just have to see how it pays off on faster courses.” The Sports Information Staff was also able to speak to Simms after the race.

“It wasn’t my best performance,” Simms said. “I wasn’t feeling great from the start, but I do feel like after Berea that I’m set up for a good season. I just have to be smarter about recovery and getting to the starting line healthy.”

Simms has already been awarded a Runner of the Week honor this season along with a Rookie Runner of the Week honor by the USA South Conference. A lot can be said about Simms’ character and work ethic if a third-place finish is a performance that she was not very pleased with. 

Maleah Wooten was the third Maryville runner to finish in the Maryville Invitational. 

“I’ve never ran a 6K before, so I think it was pretty good. I think this sets me up to have a lot of improvement. They expect me to have 27s, and I had a 30,” Wooten said.

She looks forward to the rest of the events on the college’s schedule as the Scots will travel to Kentucky soon. 

Maryville College’s Cross Country squads continued their seasons at the Greater Louisville Classic in Louisville, Ky. The Scots’ women finished 29th of 37 Division III teams in that challenge as some of the team was able to rank within the top 200 runners. Namely, these runners were, by no surprise, Mulligan (75th), Simms (119th), and Hannah Mattison (198th.) 

The Scots Cross Country teams will continue their seasons on Oct. 11 in Queens, NY, at the Royals Challenge.

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