GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- For the second consecutive season, Tusculum University distance runner Nicole McMillen will compete at the NCAA Division II Women's Cross Country Championship. The meet will be held this Saturday, November 23 at the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, California.
McMillen will run in the women's 6-kilometer championship race, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. local time (1 p.m. Eastern) on Saturday. Around 260 runners are expected to compete in the meet, representing 34 teams along with individual runners.
The graduate student from Pickering, Ontario, is the second Tusculum women's cross country runner to compete twice at nationals, joining Amanda Musick who ran in 2001, 2003 and 2004. Sue Lewis (2001) is the only other Tusculum women's runner to participate at the NCAA Championship.
McMillen won the South Atlantic Conference championship last month and finished second at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional two weeks ago to earn an automatic bid to nationals. In six races this season, McMillen has four wins and two second-place finishes, and she has finished in the top five in eight of her nine career starts.
Last year, McMillen finished 59th out of 267 runners at the national championship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a time of 23:57.7. Her finish last year was second among SAC runners and fourth-best out of the Southeast Region, after joining the team for the first time just prior to the conference championship meet following the conclusion of her four-year career in women's soccer at Tusculum.