Craft continues to improve at TMU
Heritage cross country alum Allison Craft recently wrapped up a solid sophomore season at Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland, Ga.
Warming up for the 2022 campaign, the four-time Catoosa County Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year ran a 20:53 at the 5K for FCA in Chattanooga on Sept. 5. Craft was first in her age group, the No. 3 female finisher and 10th out of 110 in the field.
In the Bears’ first meet of the season at the GMC Brickyard Invitational in Milledgeville (Sept. 9), TMU took the title with a perfect score of 15 points as eight TMU runners placed in the top 10. Craft was fourth with a time of 21:18.
She followed up with a 22:00 at the Embry-Riddle Invitational in Daytona Beach, Fla. (Sept. 17), good enough for fifth on her team, while the team placed sixth out of 13 overall. Then on Sept. 24, she clocked a then-personal record of 20:07 at the Yeti Invitational in Shelby, N.C. Craft was fourth on her team, which won another team title.
She set another PR (18:56) on Oct. 1 at the Point University Invitational in Valley, Ala. She was the thirdfastest for TMU that day, while the Bears finished second out of 10 teams.
Craft was the second-fastest for TMU in their next race, the Newberry Invitational in South Carolina, on Oct. 22 as her 20:06 helped TMU place second out of 12 squads.
Then, at the Appalachian Athletic
Conference meet in Columbia, S.C. on Nov. 4, TMU took third place in the 12-team field, while Craft crossed the finish line in 19:43 (27th place out of 108 runners).
The Bears would earn an at-large berth to compete in the NAIA National Championships for the first time in program history. There in Tallahassee, Fla. on Nov. 18, she ran a 20:25 — third-best on her team — as TMU finished 31st out of 36 teams in attendance.
Craft, a four-time state qualifier with four top-five Region 7-AAAA finishes while at Heritage, including a region title in her sophomore year, was named to the AAC Cross Country All-Academic Team for 2022 and also earned an NAIA Cross Country Scholar-Athlete award.