Cauthen, McMillen named Applebee's Student-Athletes of the Month for October

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum University linebacker Jackson Cauthen and cross country runner Nicole McMillen have been named the Applebee's Student-Athletes of the Month for October.

Cauthen, a sophomore from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, led the TU football team with 31 total tackles during the month including seven for loss, two sacks, forced two fumbles and returned an interception for a 31-yard touchdown.

He opened the month with 10 tackles including two behind the line of scrimmage against 16^th-ranked Wingate University on October 5.  He followed a week later with a season-best 13 stops against No. 8 Lenoir-Rhyne University.  In that contest, he also tallied two tackles for loss with a sack and forced a fumble.  Cauthen closed out the month with eight tackles in TU's 23-20 win over UNC Pembroke on October 26. Besides his interception return for a TD, he made a fourth-down stop in the final minute to preserve the Tusculum victory over UNCP.

This season, Cauthen leads the Pioneers with 60 tackles including 13 for loss, three sacks and has two interceptions to his credit.

McMillen won all three races in which the Pioneers competed during October, including the South Atlantic Conference Championship at Wingate on October 26. McMillen won the SAC women's championship by a margin of more than 25 seconds to become the Pioneers' first conference champ since Amanda Musick in 2003, and was recognized as the SAC Runner of the Year.

Earlier in the month, McMillen set a course record and won the Bobcat Cross Country Invitational at Georgia College by more than a minute and a half on October 12, and took first place in the Blue Division five-kilometer race at the Live in Lou Classic in Louisville, Kentucky on October 5. In that race, the native of Pickering, Ontario was first among 531 runners and beat the runner-up by 11 seconds.

This season, McMillen has four wins and a runner-up in five events, giving her seven top-five finishes in eight career races. Her four single-season wins are second to Musick's five victories during the 2003 season, and McMillen's four career wins are tied for second with April Jennison (1993-95) to the 10 career victories by Musick from 2001 to 2004.

The Tusculum Student-Athlete of the Month Award is sponsored by Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar of Greeneville.  The Applebee's Student-Athlete of the Month Award honors one male and one female student-athlete each month from an in-season sport during the 2019-2020 academic year, recognizing their hard work, effort and performance.

2019-2020 Applebee's Student-Athletes of the Month