Eagles season concludes with strong team finishes
11/2/2019 – Carrollton, GA
By Andy Carr
The Milton cross country teams concluded their seasons today with the boy’s team just missing out in a top-10 finish as the girls just missed the podium and a trophy with a 5th place team finish.
BOYS
Milton (12th-298 pts) just missed a top-10 finish while besting 12 schools at the GHSA State Class 7A-Championship Meet held under cool & dry conditions. Area rivals Walton (1st-98 pts), Lambert (2nd-116 pts) & West Forsyth (3rd-119 pts) swept the top-3 spots as the Eagles beat back half the state qualifying teams.
Junior Hayden Marshall (17th-16:51) ran close to a 30-second course best to move up from 38th place at the mile to just miss a top-10 finish. Senior co-captain Spencer Watry (31st-17:08) followed Marshall’s lead and steadily moved up the entire race. Junior Jack Petkash (70th-17:37) kept the Roswell pack in check and gave the Eagles much needed points running as Milton #3 finisher. Senior co-captain Joe Pick (85th-17:49) & junior Connor Brunson (90th-17:51) closed out the Eagle scoring. In a tough battle, sophomore Dylan Bowden (111th-18:17) couldn’t match strides with Mill Creek’s 6th runner as Milton lost on the tiebreaker for the 11th place team spot (Mill Creek-11th 298 pts). Senior co-captain Alex Braswell (118th-18:24) concluded his Eagle cross country career and was Milton’s final finisher. 167 runners completed the state championship race. This was the Eagles 10th consecutive trip to the state meet.
GIRLS
The Lady Eagles gave everything they had and then some at the GHSA State Class 7A-Championship Meet but couldn’t overcome a 36-second spread from their 4th to 5th runners and just missed out on a podium finish. Milton (5th-160 pts) was off the podium for the first time in close to 9 years but did manage to dispatch 19 schools. The Hawks of Hillgrove (1st-77 pts) won their school’s first-ever state title in any sport. Area rivals again bested the Lady Eagles with South Forsyth (2nd-90 pts), Walton (3rd-99 pts) & West Forsyth (4th-100 pts) the remaining podium teams.
As she has done all season long, senior Nyah Hernandez (6th-19:34) led Milton and was in the top-3 for most of the contest. Hernandez ends her Milton cross country career with 4 top-10 individual finishes at the state meet, the first of any Milton cross country athlete! Junior Audrey Nichols (23rd-20:28) ran her best race of the season to improve 28 positions from last year’s state meet race. Senior co-captain Abby Rindt (34th-20:44) was next and helped solidify the Lady Eagles effort. Freshman Annalise Crow (35th-20:48) was in the top-25 most of the race and even was in the top-20 before holding on to a top-40 finish. Junior Clare Petkash (68th-21:24) capped-off the most incredible season for this rising talent and along with sophomore Jessica Albregts (76th-21:36) & first-year senior Ella Langley (82nd-21:41) put all of Milton’s finishers in the top half of the race! The state championship race had 170 finishers and the Lady Eagles have either been 3rd, 4th or 5th at the state meet in 8 of the last 9 years!
