2009 Marist Double Dip

The Milton Cross Country teams traveled to the friendly confines of The Marist School in Dunwoody to compete in the Roy Benson Double Dip Invitational and came away with successful team results and individual performances.

Varsity Boys—Solid Team Effort Earns Fifth Place

The Eagles ran with new vigor and determination and their results showed it. After a not-so-happy result at Berry the week before, Milton rebounded and finished a strong 5th of 17 teams (173 pts), beating region foe Pope (10th-215 pts) and Fulton County contender Riverwood (8th-195 pts). Host Marist (1st-80 pts) won the meet followed by Lakeside-Evans (2nd-104 pts) and Lakside-Dekalb (3rd-109 pts) in a close battle for 2nd place honors. Tyler Tomy continued to lead the Eagles and his 4th place finish (16:47) broke the previous Marist course record. Tyler was among the top four the entire race and made a few bids for the overall win. Tyler’s performance is also 20 seconds faster than he ran on this course when he won the 2007 Nike Class Clash. Milton made a strong team showing by having their next six runners finish within a spread of only 47 seconds. The freshman duo of Miles Dayoub (36th-18:21) and Alex Marshall (39th-18:28) led the Eagle pack of close finishers. Strong performances were turned in by senior Boyd Guttery (43rd-18:34) and Chris Blauvelt (51st-18:41). The ever-improving Alex Salvatierra (64th-19:02), Keegan Baird (70th-19:08) and Chris Chernick (86th-19:40) rounded out the Varsity team.

Varsity Girls—Pack Attack Earns Third-Place Trophy

The 10th-ranked Lady Eagles showed their strength and depth with an impressive 3rd place result even without their #1 runner Chelsea Weiermiller and after losing their # 5 runner Jackie Mahoney to injury during the race. Milton (92 pts) finished just shy of two top-ranked AAAA schools Lakeside-Evans(2nd-82 pts) and host Marist (1st-71 pts). The Lady Eagles turned back ranked programs from Lovett (4th-115 pts), Lakeside-Dekalb (7th-209 pts) and Riverwood (9th-212 pts). Leading the Lady Eagles was literally a pack of ladies giving a superb effort, any of whom could have been the top finisher. Sophomore Lindsay Gruca (14th-21:14) crossed first, followed closely by senior Stephanie Butzer (15th-21:17) and freshman sensations Olivia Koerner (16th-21:22-coming back after a rough race the week before at Berry) and Maddie Butzer (17th-21:23). Senior co-captain Cori Deutsch (30th-22:20) ran strong and finished fifth for Milton. Sophomore Amanda Lockwood (34th-22:31) and junior Brynn Weiermiller (57th-23:31) concluded the finishers for the trophy-winning Lady Eagles.

JV Boys—Another Pack Attack, Another Trophy

Coming off their runner-up finish at Berry, the Eagles had their hands full but were able to secure a strong 3rd place finish (71 pts) following a close battle with Lakeside-Dekalb (2nd-58 pts). Host Marist finished in first place (19 pts)—not surprising because they raced many of their Varsity athletes in the JV race. Even though he had been sick most of last week, sophomore Anthony Machan rose to the occasion and paced Milton’s team. Anthony’s last mile was impressive as he passed many faltering runners and finished 5th overall (19:02). A strong group of Eagles followed as Milton brought in its next five runners in 13 seconds! John Britt Easterling showed again he loves this course with another outstanding effort (14th-19:25) and was followed closely by John Ladaga (17th-19:33), Matt Foley (18th-19:33), David Hasslinger (21st-19:34) and Jody Hirschi (22nd-19:37). Another good effort from Danny Shawcross (36th-19:56) closed out the scoring for the JV Eagles.


JV Girls—First Place Tops Milton Performances

In the most exciting race of the day, the Lady Eagles totally dominated the JV Girls race with the overall win (1st-20 pts), outpacing nine other schools. With seven finishers in the top 15, Milton was never challenged. Host Marist (2nd-47 pts) and Charlotte-Catholic (3rd-86 pts) joined Milton on the trophy stand. In a very exciting race which saw the lead change among three runners, sophomore Heather Harman finished first for the Eagles and an agonizing 2nd place overall (22:42). Junior Maddy Hassett ran an impressive and smart race; at the 2-mile mark, just exiting the hilly section of the course, Maddy had as much as a 100 meter lead on the field and was able to hold on against surging competitors for 3rd place (22:44). Backing up her run at Berry with another strong run was Kelly Albano (4th-23:10), followed immediately by senior Samantha Rate (5th-23:11) and the fast-closing Gloria Mahoney (6th-23:14). Anchoring this incredible trophy-winning effort were Lisa Bluth (13th-24:26) and Rachel Gravlee (15th-24:47).

Open Race—Milton Domination

The final race of the day was the Open race where all remaining runners, boys and girls together, competed. Even though official scores were not recorded, Milton runners were by far the winning team in boys and girls contests. Winning the race outright was Milton runner Brent Neal who passed many runners in the last 800 meters and edged the #2 opponent right at the finish line! Brent’s frantic finish got him under 20:00 for the first time this season (19:59). Milton girls were led by senior Anika Scholz who ran her best time of the season to date and was the 2nd overall female finisher.

Milton XC Next Meet
Milton competes next at its home meet, 2nd Milton Invitational, on Saturday, September 19. Most of the nine participating teams have not previously run on Milton’s home course, so Milton has a definite home-course advantage. However, with top runners from across the metro Atlanta area are scheduled to compete and the meet should be thrilling for all the races being contested and serve as a mini-preview for the upcoming Fulton County Public Schools cross country championships scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd at Webb Bridge Park in Alpharetta.