Lady Major Runners Wrap Up Historic Season

The 2003 Millsaps women's cross country team ended their most successful campaign in school history recently by finishing 12th out of 20 teams in the NCAA Division III South/Southeast Region Championships at Emory University in Atlanta.

A total of 157 runners competed in the 6-kilometer run. Carly Dessauer led the Majors with an outstanding time of 24:44.04, which nailed down 24th position. Other Majors and there times/placement were Jessica Brown (26:08.42) (58th), Nora Oliver (26:27.64) (67th), Adryon Wong (26:32.95) (70th), and Caitlin Doyle (28:48.19) (110th).

The regular season was highlighted by the Lady Majors historic win at the Mississippi College Invitational (Choctaw Trails) in October. It marked the first time ever that a Millsaps cross country team had placed first in an event. The Majors beat out 9 other teams for the top prize.

They also placed 2nd (out of 8) in the Millsaps Invitational, 7th (out of 13) in the USM meet, 6th (out of 16) in the Rhodes race, and 4th (out of 4) at Mississippi State. The Lady Majors also had a strong showing in the SCAC Cross Country Championships held at Rose-Hulman in November, finishing 5th (out of 10). 68 runners competed in the 5-kilometer race, with Dessauer again leading the way (20:02.42) (19th), followed by Brown (20:26.12) (25th), Wong (20:56.33) (34th), Doyle (21:52.54) (45th), and Oliver (21:54.63) (47th).

The future looks very bright for this group as they lose only 2 runners (Corrinne Porr and Claire Kurtts) to graduation. Other returning team members are Lauren Lippincott and Becky McDole.

Coach Eric Navarre has done a tremendous job and was extremely pleased with the way the year unfolded. "We are a young team and should be even better next year. Our goal for 2004 is to finish in the top 5 in the region."