(DAHLONEGA) – University of North Georgia women’s cross country graduate student Claire Mills has been named as the 2024 Peach Belt Conference Runner of the Year for the second consecutive season.
Last year, Mills made history by becoming the first Nighthawk in school history to be named the PBC Runner of the Year. Now, she makes history again as just the fourth runner in conference history to earn the award multiple times.
In the 2024 campaign, Mills holds a number of the top times within the PBC. In 6K races, she holds the fourth and fifth best times with her performances at the Georgia Tech Invitational (23:00.6) and Converse Kick-Off (23:11.7)
In 5K competitions, Mills holds the second best time of any conference runner this year after she posted an 18:14.2 pace in UNG’s very own 12th Annual XC Invitational at the UNG Cross Country Course in Gainesville, Ga. Mills will run that very same course in two short days for the 2024 PBC Cross Country Championship. Mills could become the league’s first five-time All-Conference runner should she finish in the top 15 Saturday.
With a personal best 15:38.4 time in the 2nd Annual Young Harris Opener, Mills finished the season with the second-best mark in a 4K event in the PBC this year.
With four marks in the top 5 of their respective events within the PBC this season, Mills is the only runner in the conference to accomplish such a feat. No runner from another school holds more than two of the top 10 times in a competition of any distance.
This latest honor is Mills’ seventh postseason honor from the PBC in her career. Back in 2020, she earned the PBC Freshman of the Year Award. She’s the fourth runner in conference history to earn both the Freshman of the Year and Runner of the Year honors in her career. She’s the second competitor in PBC history to accomplish that feat with multiple Runner of the Year awards.
Mills and the Nighthawks will look to make history as a team this weekend when they race in the 2024 PBC Cross Country Championship on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10:15 a.m. UNG has finished as the Runner-Up at the conference championship for six years straight. A win on Saturday would mark just the second conference title in program history and the first since 2017.
