2007 Volunteer Classic
The Milton Cross Country teams traveled north to Tennessee for their annual overnight trip to compete in the 4th Annual Volunteer Classic Invitational in Knoxville. Conducted by the Knoxville Track Club, the Volunteer Classic is a very highly regarded meet with teams from Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, North & South Carolina coming to challenge the course at Victor Ashe Park.
Varsity Girls
With a much anticipated match up with #5 ranked Brookwood, the Lady Eagles rose to the occasion and challenged the Broncos and came away with a strong 4th place finish (140) behind Brentwood Academy-91 (TN), Asheville-110 (NC) and just 11 points shy of Brookwood-129. Again leading the way for Milton was freshman Lauren Jones. Her 12th place finish was an all-time best! Next for Lady Eagles were sophomores Chelsea Weiermiller (26th –also running an all-time best) and Stephanie Butzer (28th). Also scoring for Milton was a very strong effort by Jamie Chandler (36th) and Cori Deutsch (49th).
Varsity Boys
After reviewing the teams entered, the Milton boys felt their chances for a high team finish were possible and they did not disappoint. Facing strong teams from Kentucky & Tennessee, the Eagles held their own and came away with an award winning 3rd place among 25 schools! The Eagles (107) were out paced by St Xavier-49 (KY) and Maryville-83 (TN). Leading Milton was again the front-running Tyler Tomy. The sophomore was up near the front the entire race and finished 7th. Brother Seth Tomy had another outstanding race (9th) and ran most of the way with Christian Scholz (18th). The Eagles suffered without the services of Mitchell Foley but good races were turned in by Brian Parsons (44th) and Alex Keeter (46th).
JV Girls
With Brookwood in attendance, the Lady Eagles knew they were in for a tough battle. Milton ran a great “pack” race and came in an impressive third place (91) out of a small field of 5 complete schools. Brookwood’s dominance (1st-29pts) showed as they placed all-7 runners in the top-13. Finishing just ahead of Milton was Brentwood Academy-44 (TN). Running up front for the Lady Eagles was a gutsy race by Anika Scholz. Her 5th place finish paced Milton as Anika was in a position the entire race that challenged for the win! Scoring for Milton were Melissa Tillitski (21st), Kelsey Campolong (23rd), MC Durham (24th) and another great effort by Katie Winkel (28th).
JV Boys
After winning the boys varsity race easily, St Xavier (KY) did not let up and had 7 runners in the top-7 spots for most of the race. But Eagle runner Brandon Halls broke up their anticipated perfect score of 15 and in the last 400m of the race passed 3 of their runners to finish an impressive 4th place! After St Xavier’s dominate finish (17 pts), Maryville was a distance second (65). Brandon’s fine run led Milton to a well-earned 3rd place (79) among 8 scoring teams. Freshman Alex Salvatierra backed up Brandon’s 4th place with an outstanding last mile to finish 13th! Senior co-captain Max Spartz followed (19th) along with the ever-improving Ryan Winkel (20th). Rounding out the Milton scorers was Taylor Early (26th).
The Milton Cross Country teams will now prepare for their next meet which is the Fulton County Public Schools Championship, which will be held at Webb Bridge Park in Alpharetta on October 13th. After a string of 4 consecutive Best Overall Fulton County Program trophies (2002-2005), the Eagles were upset in 2006 by Northview and vow to regain the trophy in 2 weeks.