CLINTON, Miss. – In what is a tradition for the cross country teams at Millsaps College, the squads opened their 2017 seasons at the College Season Opener hosted by Mississippi College on the Choctaw Trails course. The Majors' women's team placed 8^th of 13 competing schools, finishing with 233 points, finishing just 29 points out of sixth-place.
 
Freshman Lily Pudlik (Hoover, Ala.) had a strong debut for the Majors, covering the 4K course in 17:44.85 that was an average of just over seven minutes a mile, finishing 38^th overall among the 96 runners that started the course.
 
Millsaps then had a group of three runners cross the line bunched within seven competitors. Junior Miranda Gaupp (Baton Rouge, La.) and freshman Abby Tew (Brandon, Miss.) both covered the course at about a 7:35 pace to finish back-to-back within two seconds of one another. Gaupp finished in 18:49.30, while Tew was just behind her in 18:51.35. Just five places behind Tew was freshman Kai Horne (Meridian, Miss.), who stopped the clock at 19:27.87.
 
Rounding out the times on the team were sophomore Elle Pickrell (Baton Rouge, La.) who clocked a 23:071, and freshman Lacee Winfield (Memphis, Tenn.) who turned in a 24:06.25.
 
Millsaps will be running again on September 16 when the Majors will take part in the Rhodes Invitational on the Shelby Farms course.