Milligan’s cross-country team hosted the Eli Cramer Invitational again after a one-year break, winning both the men’s and women’s team titles.
The race was held on Sept. 26 in Steele Creek State Park in Bristol in honor of Eli Cramer, a former member of the team.
This year’s meet included a men’s and women’s 5K, with both Milligan teams defeating King University to claim team titles. The men’s team swept the top eight spots, led by Bryson Lewis, who won with a time of 16:24.6. The women’s team dominated by taking all top 16 spots. Ellen-Mary Kearney finished first in 18:20.7.
“The purpose of his meet was to honor Eli Cramer and just express our genuine love for this sport we get to do,” said junior McKenzie Fitzgerald.
“There are only one or two people still on the team that were here when Cramer was,” she said. “So it’s nice to hear them and coach tell us about him and the impact he had on our program. I think that’s important for us to do this meet every year so his legacy can live on.”
Cramer died in March 2022 after he and two teammates were hit by a drunk driver while preparing for a meet in Virginia. He was part of Milligan’s NAIA men’s cross-country national championship team and earned All-American honors in 2020 and 2021. He was also a two-time All-AAC First Team finisher in cross country and a three-time national qualifier in indoor and outdoor track.
This was the first time the race was held in Bristol. In previous years, it took place on Milligan’s M Training Loop on campus.
“I think we would all really like for the meet to grow in coming years with more teams coming and more students from campus coming to watch and cheer since we don’t really have home meets,” Fitzgerald said.
The team also honored Cramer by wearing special warmup shirts. The shirts read “your mom’s favorite runner,” a phrase the team adopted from Cramer. As a high school runner, Cramer wore a similar shirt, which gained popularity on social media.
Cover Photo: Men’s team cheer at Eli Cramer Invitational, Sep.26 in Bristol (by McKenzie Fitzgerald)
