The Milton Cross Country season concluded Saturday with the Eagles running in the state championship meet at Carrollton. With a season long goal of just qualifying for the meet and a dream of finishing in the top-10, that goal AND dream was realized!

The varsity boy’s pulled off one of their best team races of the season to finish an incredible 7th place out of 32 teams at the state championship meet! Led by freshman sensation Tyler Tomy (32nd), the Eagles scored 226 points (adjusted) to outdistance some major state cross country programs, including South Forsyth, Marietta, Etowah, Kennesaw Mountain and Peachtree Ridge. From finishing a non-state qualifying 6th at REGION in 2005 to a 7th place at the state meet is a true testament of the strength, resolve and commitment to training and racing this team put forth this season. Also scoring for Milton was a brilliant run by Brian Parsons (48th), Christian Scholz (51st), Seth Tomy (54th) and Mitchell Foley (71st). The boy’s time spread (from runners #1-#5) was a season low of only 39 seconds! (17:09-17:48). Rounding out Milton’s varsity team included Ryan Price (108th) and Alex Keeter (178th). 229 runners finished. This is the Eagles highest state meet placing since its 5th place finish in 2004.

The varsity girl’s achieved their season long goal of a top-10 finish at the state meet with a 9th place (244 points-adjusted) finish. Upsetting previously ranked teams of Northview (247), Lassiter (247), Harrison (301) and Etowah (305), the Lady Eagles achieved their best state finish since 2003 (7th). Milton was again led by senior Megan Hirschi (20th) who was running in the top-10 the majority of the race. Strong finishes by Sarah Foreman (29th) and Jamie Chandler (30th) put the Lady Eagles in contention for a high team finish. Senior sensation Lauren Newman (82nd) followed for Milton and was supported by a hard-charging Laura Randall (88th) who passed many runners the last half of the race. The Lady Eagles strong pack was also supported by Susannah Hardy (92nd) and the amazing freshman Steph Butzer (98th). There were 215 finishers.

The Milton cross country teams had one of the most successful days in team history at the Region 6-AAAAA championship meet. With both the boy’s and girl’s varsity teams qualifying for the state meet, Milton joins Walton (both boy’s & girl’s), Lassiter (both boy’s & girl’s), Chattahoochee (boy’s) & Northview (girl’s) as the teams from Region 6 to advance to the state meet. The Milton teams walked away with 3 team trophies and many all-time and seasonal bests in making a big impact on the state cross country scene!!

JV Girls
The JV Lady Eagles started the meet with a bang with their impressive runner-up finish to Walton! With 3 runners in the top-12 and all 5 scorers in the top-17, Milton made an impressive showing scoring 52 to finish behind only Walton (25). The JV Lady Eagles exacted some revenge on their 3rd place county performance by beating back all the Fulton County teams that had placed in front of them less than a month ago (Roswell-119-5th, Northview-103-3rd). Great races by Cori Deutsch (3rd)and Chelsea Weiermiller (4th) led Milton and were followed up by scoring runs by MC Durham (12th), senior co-captain Ashley Warner (16th-in an all-time best) and the amazing Maddie Cook (17th).

JV Boys
Milton ran a very strong race to garner 3rd place out of 12 teams. Led by Brandon Halls (10th) and Drew Norris (12th-all time best), the Eagles (120) made a gallant effort but fell short to both Walton (20) and Lassiter (51). Milton was also paced by strong finishes by Thomas Monette (37th), Will Anderson (49th) and Josh Witkowski (52nd).

Varsity Girls
In the biggest upset of the day, the Lady Eagles 2nd place team finish (80) knocked off Fulton County Champs Northview (3rd-95) and 8th ranked Lassiter (4th-120) and almost beat perennial power Walton (1st-74)!! The Raiders of Walton were ranked 5th (all-classification) and 3rd (in AAAAA) going into this weekend’s region meets.
Megan Hirschi’s all time best and runner-up finish led Milton to qualify for the state meet. This amazing team finish for the Lady Eagles was done with both up-front presence and great pack running. Milton’s scorers included Jamie Chandler (8th), Sarah Foreman (14th), Lauren Newman (26th), Steph Butzer (30th), Susannah Hardy (34th) and senior co-captain Laura Randall (53rd).

Varsity Boys
After missing the state meet in 2005 (6th at region), Milton came storming back to place a solid 3rd and qualify for the state meet! Walton (45) finished it’s sweep of winning all four region races. Lassiter (69) was runner-up and the Eagles (117) finished 3rd beating Chattahoochee (155) & Roswell (178). Two sub-17:00 performances led the day for Milton. Tyler Tomy continues to impress (10th) and was backed up by Christian Scholz (13th). Scorers for the Eagles included Seth Tomy (19th), the charging Mitchell Foley (28th-note: Mitchell was 73rd place just before the 1-mile mark and through the race passed an amazing 45 runners, more than ½ of the entire race to run an all-time best!!!) and Brian Parsons (47th). Other Milton varsity runners included Alex Keeter (48th) and Ryan Price (53rd).

The Eagle varsity teams travel to Carrollton on Nov 11th to compete in the State Cross Country meet.