Milton’s cross country teams experienced huge success and season best performances at this year’s Reebok Coach Wood Invitational. The meet, being run on the region course, was a great chance for the team to run a fast race, in a relaxed setting and get a chance to experience the region course before the meet which will be held Nov 4th. The Gainesville College course is known as a fast one and with the exceptional weather, the Eagle cross country teams took advantage of the conditions and ran to personal and seasonal bests!

The varsity girl’s, led by race WINNER Megan Hirschi, (who defeated the 2003 AA state champion) finished a strong 3rd place out of 26 scoring teams. Contributing to the trophy winning team finish were Sarah Foreman (9th) and Jamie Chandler, running a all-time best in 14th. Also running all-time bests were Laura Randall (36th), Steph Butzer (39th) and the amazing Lauren Newman (21:41 for 45th). Lauren’s time is a now 9 minutes faster than her first meet performance this season!

The varsity boys ran one of their strongest team races of the season and finished 2nd out of 29 scoring teams. Milton’s varsity finished only 3 points from champion Athens Christian, who, earlier in the season had defeated Milton by some 60 points at Berry/Clara Bowl. Christian Scholz again led the Eagles with his 7th place finished followed closely by Tyler Tomy (11th) and the surprising Brian Parsons (14th-and all-time best of 17:32).

The JV Lady Eagles faced a very strong field that included all the Fulton County schools and some strong teams from Gwinnett and finished a respectable 8th place out of 19 teams. Chelsea Weirmiller led Milton with her 29th place finish. She was followed closely by Kelsey Capalong (30th) running an all-time best of 23:06! In one of the more exciting races of the day, a big PR was run by Rachel Graham (23:39) finishing in 49th place. Our top-5 JV girls had an incredible 42 second spread between our first and fifth Milton runners.

The JV boys ran an outstanding team race and backed up their Fulton County Championship with a solid 3rd place out of 27 schools. The JV Eagles defeated strong programs from Lassiter and Parkview on their way to a trophy awarding performance. Brandon Halls led the way with his very strong 7th place finish. An incredible effort was run by Daniel McCormick. Daniel ran an all-time best by about 1 minute to finish 25th and lead a 25th, 27th, 28th and 36th place finishes by the Eagle JV boys. Contributing to a spread of only 43 seconds from our 1st to 5th runners were Josh Witkowski (27th), Thomas Monette (28th) and Will Anderson (36th).

In the Open JV Race (any runner from any school that had not yet run) the boys were led by Jamar Jeter with his top-10 finish. For the ladies, Leslie Crews led the way followed by all-time bests by Katie Winkle and Olivia Tusa.

Next up for the Milton cross country teams is the region meet (11/4) to be held in the afternoon on this same Gainesville College course. This meet will determine the 8 team qualifiers from Region 6-AAAAA (4 boys and 4 girls schools) and any individual runners that finish in the top-6 that are NOT on any of those state qualifying teams.

Milton’s cross country teams came into this meet the 4-time defending Best Program champions (2002-2005) but were upset by Northview. Team wins by both the boy’s varsity and JV could not overcome 3rd place finishes by both the varsity and JV girls. To determine the best program, points are awarded for team finishes in all 4 races with the top point getter winning the title. After all 4 races were tallied; both Milton & Northview were tied with 11 points so the first tie-breaking procedure was used. The tie breaker was the lowest accumulated score of the schools varsity girl’s & boy’s team scores. Milton scored 117 to Northview’s 115, thus giving the title to the Spartans. As you read below, Northview’s one win (varsity girls) and one runner-up (varsity boys), both by just ONE point each, gave them the overall best program title!

Great individual performances on the girl’s side led to 3rd place finishes by both the varsity and the JV.

Megan Hirschi led the way for the varsity Lady Eagles with her runner-up finish and season best time (19:48). Jamie Chandler followed in 20:58 an outstanding effort garnering 9th place Hanging on in a tough race was Sarah Foreman in 11th.
Northview (48) won by just 1 point over AAA Riverwood (49) with Milton a solid 3rd (71).

The JV girls were led by Cori Deutsch’s 3rd place and all-time personal best. Lauren Newman ran the most incredible race of the day finishing 7th place to help the girls finish 3rd. Northview was the top school with 44 points followed by Roswell (66) and then in a close 3rd (71) were the JV Lady Eagles.

Solid team running and top finishes led both the varsity and JV boys to become Fulton County champions.

Avenging their loss by 2 points a year ago to Northview (64-66), the varsity boys won by over 20 points (46-67) to Northview, with Chattahoochee finishing a close 3rd (68).
The varsity boys were led by a 3,4,5 finish by Christian Scholz, Seth Tomy and brother Tyler Tomy, all running all-time bests. Mitchell Foley’s patience and smart running led him to 15th place and solidified the victory for Milton.

The JV boys were again led by Brian Parsons’s overall win. Brian took his second consecutive win by waiting until the last 600 meters and then pulling away to a convincing win in 18:03. Drew Norris’ 7th place finish made him all-county 1st team JV and Ryan Thurman (14th) rounded out our top-3 placers and with that a solid victory over Chattahoochee (53-83).

The Milton Cross country teams now head to Gainesville College for the Coach Wood Invitational (hosted by Dacula HS) on 10/21. The teams will use this as a prep for the region meet, to be held on the same Gainesville course on 11/4.