Taylor Milne Named HPU’s First Big South Track & Field Hall of Famer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former High Point University track and field standout Taylor Milne has been elected to the Big South Conference Hall of Fame, the league announced Tuesday (April 10). Milne becomes the High Point’s first-ever inductee.

Milne will be officially inducted on May 31, 2018, during a special ceremony as part of the Big South’s annual spring meetings at the Marriott Resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

A class of 2005 graduate of HPU, Milne was a six-time Big South champion and eight-time All-Conference honoree. Voted to the Big South Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field 2000-09 All-Decade Team, Milne was the Big South champion in the 2003 indoor 800-meter and mile, the 2004 indoor champion in the 3,000-meters, and twice won the outdoor 1,500-meter event (2002 and 2005). Named the Big South’s Most Outstanding Track Performer for the 2003 Indoor Track & Field Championships, Milne’s four indoor titles set the Big South Championship records at the time — a 1:54.15 in the 800m (2003), a 4:10.40 in the mile (2003), followed by 4:05.50 in 2004 and an 8:20.36 effort in the 3,000m (2004).

Milne also earned All-Conference honors in 2002 while leading HPU to the Big South title with a fifth-place finish. Milne became High Point’s first NCAA Division I national track & field qualifier when he qualified for the indoor mile as a senior and finished 13th to earn All-America honors — the first Panther to earn this distinction in the school’s Division I history. Milne still holds three school records: indoor mile (4:02.18), indoor 3,000-meters (8:13.43) and outdoor 1,500-meters (3:43.99).

After graduating from High Point, Milne has been a two-time Olympian for Team Canada, having competed in the 2008 Beijing Games and 2016 Rio Games. He qualified and competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as he set his personal best time and an equal Olympic A-standard of 3:36.00 by winning the 1,500 meters at the Harry Jerome International Track Classic in Burnaby, British Columbia.

He also ran in the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 and qualified for the IAAF Diamond League Meet in London in summer 2015. Milne’s international competition includes the 3,000m steeplechase in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The rest of the Big South Conference Hall of Fame Class of 2018 includes former Campbell men’s soccer player Juha Miettinen, former Winthrop softball player Janiva Willis and former UNC Asheville Sports Information Director Mike Gore.

The Big South Hall of Fame, created in 2003 as part of the League’s 20th Anniversary celebration, now totals 69 former Big South Conference student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors with the addition of this year’s class.