Battle of Atlanta
2008 Battle of Atlanta
September 20, 2008
In the varsity girls Battle of Atlanta team competition the north held a commanding lead after the first 10 runners finished (led by Centennial’s Katie June who was the overall winner) and with 13 runners in the top-20 easily defeated the south 175-290 as the score was determined by the first 15 runners on each squad. For the boy’s it was a little closer thru the top-10 but by the 20th runner the north had 12 runners in and won 204-268.
Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles rose to the occasion and ran strong with many ranked programs and finished an impressive 4th (133 points) out of 18 teams losing to region foes Centennial (75 pts), and Walton (82 pts). Chapel Hill was a close 3rd (123 pts). Milton again was led by junior Chelsea Weiermiller. Her 10th place finish was a season’s best time and solidified herself as a top-contender for the county and region meets. Continuing to surprise was the run by freshman Heather Harman. Her all-time best (21:37) was another 30-second improvement and placed her 24th in a field of 129. Also scoring for Milton was a season’s best by Stephanie Butzer (26th-and missing a medal by less than a second), and the strong freshman (Amanda Lockwood-38th, Lindsey Gruca-39th) and junior Cori Deutsch-41st. Senior co-captain Jamie Chandler followed (75th).
Varsity Boys
In perhaps one of the strongest field of schools put together outside of Gwinnett County, the Eagles again impressed with their 4th place finish (131 pts) out of 19 schools besting top-ranked programs from Oconee County, Blessed Trinity, Alexander and Pace Academy. Milton was very close to Greenbriar (3rd-124pts) and has closed the gap on both Chapel Hill (2nd-95pts) and winner Walton (87 pts).
In an inspiring race, Tyler Tomy battled all the way to the wire for 2nd place and was edged at the finish in a season’s best 16:32 to garner 3rd. Tyler was in the lead group the entire way and gave the state’s top runners a scare and notice that he will be there come time for region and state! Brother Seth Tomy was in the top-20 the entire race and worked up to finally finish 13th. Even after a few twisted ankles during the race, Ryan Price ran a solid effort (17:53-28th) missing a medal by less than 6 seconds. Senior Alex Keeter continued his fine season with a 34th place finish. Scorers for Milton also included Travis Turner (53rd), Adam Zucker (59th) and senior co-captain Ryan Winkel (72nd) in a near all-time best!
JV Girls
In a race dominated by Walton (1st-17 pts), the Lady Eagles hung tough and challenged the Lady Raiders the best they could. In the end Northview (2nd-69pts) snuck up on Milton (3rd-70 pts) to just edge them out. Leading the way for the Lady Eagles was the outstanding run by Rachel Gravlee. Her 23:01 placed her 8th in a field of 83 competitors. Senior Katie Winkel bided her time and passed many runners to finish a strong 12th-23:11. Julia Campolong rallied in the second half of her race and was able to team up with Maddy Hassett as they finished together (17th & 18th 23:35 and 23:36 respectively).
Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Eagles were Samantha Rate (20th) and Lauren Schmidt (28th).
JV Boys
The undefeated Eagle boy’s faced their toughest test to date and finished an impressive 2nd (62 pts) losing only to region power Walton (42 pts). Milton bested 13 schools in their runner-up finish. Leading the way was the ever-present solid pack of Eagle runners that are the cornerstone of this team. Even more amazing is that all 7 Milton runners finished in the to-25 and earned individual medals. 107 runners finished the race. Senior Brandon Halls again was the front-runner with his 7th place finish (18:42). Close behind was Alex Salvatiera (10th-18:44). What followed was nothing short of incredible: Jody Hirschi-12th, 19:00, Anthony Machan-15th, 19:04, Andrew Funari-18th, 19:11, Joe Hogg-21st, 19:18 and finally Chris Chernick-23rd, 19:24.
JV Girls B-race
Since the JV races were going to be very large, the meet decided to add JV-B races as the course could not handle the large number of entries. The Lady Eagles really hit the mark and finished a close 2nd (39 pts) to Walton (20 pts). 4 full teams competed as Milton easily defeated Alexander (95 pts) and Pope (100 pts). 90 runners finished the race. The Lady Eagles were led by freshman Rita Virtanen who worked her way through the top-10 to finish an outstanding 3rd place! Strong races were turned in by Lisa Bluth (7th), senior co-captain Kelsey Campolong (10th), Shannon Moss (13th), Natalie Derajtys (17th), senior Christina McLeod (18th) and the impressive run by Selina Chan (22nd) passing many runners throughout the entire race!
JV Boys B-race
Milton finally got the best of the competition with an impressive team victory (22 pts) besting Walton (37 pts), Northview (96 pts) and Chapel Hill (135 pts). The win was anchored by the senior front running of Fraser Reade who pulled away from teammate Mitchell Foley to win the race (18:16)!! Mitchell stayed with Fraser for most of the race and was a strong 2nd (18:36). Milton was the run-away winner with 7 runners finishing in the top-10!! 151 runners finished the race. Other top-10 finishes for the Eagles were Curtis Hildebrandt (4th), Ryan Guilbault (7th), John Britt Easterling (8th), David Hassling (9th) and freshman Matt Foley (10th).
The Eagle cross country teams next compete at the Fulton County Public Schools Championship meet at Webb Bridge Park in Alpharetta on Saturday, October 4th in what should be a good preview of the region meet that follows in 4 weeks after the county meet.