CLEVELAND, MS- The Millsaps Majors women's cross-country team placed third overall out of eight teams at the Delta State Invitational in Cleveland, Mississippi. 

"This was a big meet for us," coach Andy Till said. " We set out to run very even splits putting an emphasis on the second half of the race, we executed that very well."

Melinda Solomon led the Majors on Saturday, leading the team after the first mile of the 5k race. Solomon ran an even-split race, executing the overall team strategy to a T and finished seventh overall in the meet with a time of 20:45 and a 6:40 mile pace, matching her opening mile time. 

The Majors received a big boost from Mikaela Thurber, who ran her first meet for the Majors in nearly two years. Thurber raced to a 12th place finish, a total time of 20:54 and a 6:43 mile split. 

"It was great having her back," Till said. "She helped to set the tone of the overall race, which was important for us." 

Sarah Smith was just five seconds behind Thurber, finishing 13th overall with a time of 20:59. Suasan Fasano finished 26th with a time of 22:12, Theresa Woehnker 30th (22:32) and Gabby Rincon 42nd (24:04) rounded out the scoring for the Majors on Saturday. 

Millsaps now has a lot of momentum coming out of this race as they prepare to run at Rhodes next Saturday.