The Milton Varsity Cross Country teams traveled to Carrollton, GA to compete in the GHSA State Cross Country Championship Meet and ran one of their best team performances of the entire season and came away with very high finishes!

Varsity Boys
The Eagles came into the meet riding a great wave of momentum after a strong third at Region 6-AAAAA in Canton, GA the weekend before and thought a top-10 or higher finishing spot was well within their grasp. Clean shaven and Mohawk laden, the Eagles pressed right from the starting gun and finished with a very strong 8th (196 pts) place finish out of 32 schools. Running in the top group for the majority of the race, Tyler Tomy continued his amazing season with a 20th place finish running his 2nd fastest time of the season (16:42) to lead the Eagles. Senior Brian Parsons’ strategy to hang with Tyler for as long as he could paid off with his 27th place finish and also running his 2nd fastest time of the season (16:57). A solid pack of Milton runners really made the day for the Eagles, senior co-captain Christian Scholz (48th-17:15), first-year runner Fraser Reade (55th-17:23, an all-time best time) and junior Seth Tomy (56th-17:25) closed out the scoring to secure a well earned 8th place. This solid team effort put Milton ahead of many ranked teams that were projected to beat the Eagles (Marietta-ranked 8th and finished 13th, Mill Creek-ranked 9th and finished 9th and South Forsyth-ranked 10th and finished 11th). Also running for Milton was a strong run by junior Alex Keeter (85th-17:53) and junior Mitchell Foley (87th-17:55). With their 8th place finish, Milton closed the gap on region foe Lassiter another 6 points and was able to finish their top-7 runners before BOTH Walton & Parkview’s top-7 runners!!

Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles ran strong enough the previous weekend at the Region 6-AAAAA meet to earn that last spot to qualify and run at the state meet and carried that enthusiasm into a well-run race throughout the team. Many on the team were looking forward to a hillier course and got that at the Carrollton venue. The Lady Eagles finished an impressive 11th (268 pts) out of 31 schools. Milton was able to beat strong programs from Peachtree Ridge (13th, 289 pts, ranked 8th) and Etowah (12th, 268 pts, ranked 5th)! The Lady Eagles were just 20 points shy of 7th in a really close team battle between 7th-12th places and only 3 points out of 10th! Again running number 1 for Milton, freshman Lauren Jones had a great start and was in contention for a medal winning performance but finished a strong 13th place, running her 2nd fastest time of the season (19:46). Lauren’s impressive run turned back Katie June (Centennial), Kathleen Wilson (Lassiter) and Mara Canning (Walton) whom had beaten Lauren the previous weekend! After a rough start, Chelsea Weiermiller continued her magnificent season with a 38th place finish and season’s 2nd best time (20:34). The bad start for the Lady Eagles did not deter their efforts as strong races were turned in by Jamie Chandler (68th-21:08), Cori Deutsch (82nd-21:40) and Stephanie Butzer (90th-21:51).
A gutsy and final performance by senior co-captain Susannah Hardy paid big dividends for Milton as her 22:04 performance was 10 spots better than Etowah’s 6th runner putting the Lady Eagles in 11th place instead of 12th! Senior Monique Rollocks closed out her cross country career at Milton with a seasonal best of 22:46!!

With the season now complete, the Milton Cross Country teams look forward to 2008 with excitement and anticipation of continuing the tradition of being an impact on the state of Georgia cross country scene.

The Milton cross country teams traveled to the familiar course of Boling Park in Canton, GA to compete in the Region 6-AAAAA cross country meet to determine the teams that will qualify for the State Meet to be held November 10th in Carrollton, GA. The Eagles came away with many all-time best performances and both varsity teams qualified for the state meet!

JV Girls
The first and coldest race of the day saw Milton running with all the Fulton County teams and the strong team of Walton from Cobb County. Even though the Lady Eagles had no runners in the top-15 many strong individual performances led Milton to a 6th place (149 pts) finish out of 11 teams. Walton scored a perfect 15 points to win easily followed by all the Fulton County teams in the region (Chattahoochee 2nd, 73 pts, Roswell 3rd, 83 points, Centennial 4th, 125 pts, and Northview 5th, 137 pts). Leading the way for Milton was the outstanding race by senior Christina Bins. Her 22:16 placed her 25th in a field of 217 and was her career best! Another senior, Maddie Cook followed in 28th in a season best time. Also scoring for the Lady Eagles were Anika Scholz (32nd-22:31), an all-time best for Audrey Grichting (39th-22:40) and a career best by 15 seconds for senior Melissa Tillitski (41st-22:44). Senior co-captain MC Durham ended her 4 year career at Milton with an outstanding 22:49 (43rd) and closing out the Lady Eagles top-7 was Katie Winkel (63rd).

JV Boys
Going into the region race, the Milton JV boys were excited from their win at Coach Wood two weeks before and wanted to carry that momentum to a high finish and they achieved that goal. The Eagles beat a very talented and strong Lassiter squad (3rd-97 pts) by finishing as runner-ups (2nd-70 pts) to the perfect score of 15 for the Raiders of Walton. Up front yet again for Milton was another amazing performance and all-time best for Fraser Reade. His 7th place finish (17:27) broke up Walton’s top-7 to prevent the perfect sweep. Great pack running brought the Eagles another trophy-winning performance. Freshman Alex Salvatierra (13th-17:49), Jody Hirschi (25th-18:17), Travis Turner (26th-18:17) and Joe Hogg (28th-18:19) were the placers that brought Milton to finish 2nd! Also figuring in for the scoring for the Eagles were senior Ryan Thurman (42nd-18:34) and an all-time best by Ryan Winkel (66th-19:04). 290 runners finished the race.

Varsity Girls
After a strong win at Coach Wood two weeks ago, the Lady Eagles felt their chances to make the state meet were better but also knew that it would take a career-best effort by the team to qualify. After finishing 5th at Fulton County, Milton re-grouped and focused on this race to best 2 of the 4 teams that beat them at the county meet. The Lady Eagles ran many strong individual performances and those led them to a state qualifying 4th place (130 pts)!! Lauren Jones continued her amazing season by finally breaking 20 minutes and also qualifying for the state meet as an individual with her 6th place finish with 19:33 (the Milton cross country record is 19:26-Megan Hirschi in 2006)! She stayed with the top-group the entire race and bested Walton’s #3 and the #1 runners from 7 schools! Chelsea Weiermiller followed (13th-20:05) and actually ran faster than Lauren’s previous best time! Except for Walton (1st-33 pts) and Roswell (2nd-106 pts) most schools had very bad team races and the race for the final 2 qualifying spots literally came down to most teams’ 5th runner! Centennial finished 3rd (113 pts) and the Lady Eagles turned back a strong run by Lassiter (5th-137 pts) and the 10th-ranked Alpharetta Raiders (6th-144 pts).
With large spreads among most of the teams very few packs of runners finished together and Milton was no exception. Jamie Chandler ran a season best of 20:30 (30th) and Stephanie Butzer followed (34th-20:49). The Lady Eagles 5th runner was Cori Deutsch and her near all-time best of 21:20 (48th) was enough to get them to next week’s state meet! Seniors Susannah Hardy (52nd-21:32) and Monique Rollocks (68th-22:41) also contributed to the qualifying effort! This will be, at the least, the 5thth straight trip to the state meet for the Lady Eagles. Their past state meet finishes were 7th in 2003, 14th in 2004, 13th in 2005 and 9th in 2006.

Varsity Boys
With all the top-7 returning from the 2006 squad, the Eagles saw this race as a chance to try and stay with the 5th ranked Lassiter Trojans as a prelude to running at the state meet and that is what transpired. Milton again qualified for the state meet with a repeat 3rd place finish (106 pts) losing to Walton (1st-54 pts) and Lassiter (2nd-82 pts). Centennial will also head to the state meet (4th-150 pts) losing to the Eagles by the largest margin this season!! Sophomore Tyler Tomy once again ran #1 for Milton. He stayed close to the top 5 the entire race in a field that will dominate at the state meet (4 individual qualifiers from this meet will probably all finish in the top-10 at the state meet). Tyler finished 8th in an all-time best of 16:21 (a 25-second improvement over his best time previous). The Tomys continued to be 1-2 for the Eagles as Seth Tomy again ran #2 and finished in an all-time best of 16:46 (13th). But the race of the day was the one run by senior Brian Parsons. With a season best time of 18:01 coming into this meet, Brian showed his true ability and ran an incredible 16:47 to finish 14th!! Senior co-captain Christian Scholz ran another smart and strong effort and his 17:05 garnered 28th place. Rallying from a conservative start, Alex Keeter held on and ran a solid 17:31 that was good for 43rd and the final scoring spot for the state qualifying Eagles!! Juniors Ryan Price (45th-17:35) and Mitchell Foley (57th-17:58) rounded out the varsity runners for Milton.

The Eagles travel to the GHSA State Cross Country Championships to conclude the season on next Saturday, November 10th, at Carrollton Elementary School in Carrollton, GA. The boys are scheduled to run at 1:00pm with the Lady Eagles to follow at 1:30pm.