August 26th – Whitesburg, GA – by Andy Carr
The Eagle Cross Country Teams traveled to the extremely flat McIntosh Nature Preserve course and the Bob Blastow/Early Bird Invitational meet and came away with 3 new top-10 all-time school performances and continued their very successful season.
Varsity Boys
The Eagles placed two in the top-10 overall spots to turn back 20 teams. Milton (4th-147 pts) kept it close for the team win as cross-town rival Blessed Trinity (1st-103 pts) took the overall win with Hoover (AL) (2nd-109 pts) and 7A top-ranked Carrollton (3rd-121 pts) followed. The races of the day came from senior captain Zach Patell (4th-15:28) and junior Justin Sevel (8th-15:42) as BOTH ran to top-10 all-time performances – Patell is now the 4th best and Sevel the 8th best performers in school history with their all-time bests. A strong pack of three Eagle runners that included senior captain Luke Erbey (44th-16:49) and sophomores Everett Lawder (45th-16:51) and Ryan Greathouse (46th-16:53), all running personal best times, put Milton in a Top-5 team finishing position. Freshman Will Chambers (77th-17:29), sophomore Jayin Batra (86th-17:38), freshman Luke Rasmituth (90th-17:49) and senior Jayson Faupel (95th-17:56) concluded the Eagle runners. There were 210 finishers.
Varsity Girls
Fast times kept on coming as the Lady Eagles took to the course. Milton (4th-144 pts) bested 17 schools while falling to Hoover of Alabama (1st-103 pts), Blessed Trinity (2nd-115 pts) and Pope (3rd-137 pts) in a close team battle. Once again leading the Lady Eagles, senior captain Ella Grace Malcom (10th-19:02) ran to a regular season all-time best and the 8th best time in school history! Malcom was in the lead pack the entire race. A huge personal best by junior Macy Schadt (25th-19:58) brought her from as far back as 40th early on in the race. Senior captain Calista Cacciatore (32nd-20:20) along with fellow seniors Leelah Dennis (45th-20:52) in a personal best and captain Emerson Armistead (47th-20:55) closed out the Milton scorers. Junior Ella Franke (50th-20:57), freshman Lucie Gallagher (79th-22:00). Junior Rowan Katekovich (95th-22:51), sophomore Hollis Thompson (98th-22:44) and junior Ivy Rindt (99th-22:44) all ran to either personal or season’s best times. 185 finishers were recorded.
JV Boys
Milton (3rd-93 pts) beat back 31 scoring schools in a race with close to 500 finishers. Leading the way in the oppressive heat were freshman Tyler Nix (8th-18:11), senior Joe Petkash (13th-18:23) and freshman Hayden Rogers (15th-18:32) all running personal or season’s best times.
JV Girls
Due to the weather conditions, this race was shortened to 1.5 miles but that did not deter the Lady Eagles as Milton (2nd-70 pts) turned back 23 scoring schools for the best team finish of the day! Sophomore Caroline Spain (8th-10:43) led the Lady Eagles with her top-10 finish and was followed by juniors Grace Lochman (13th-10:56) and Ashley Murray (16th-11:00). Close to 260 finishers were recorded.
The Eagle cross country teams next see action as they host their 10th home invitational, on Saturday, September 16th on one of the state’s toughest courses and following the high school meet, where 30 teams are expected to compete, Milton will co-host the AlphaCrush Youth meet for elementary and middle school aged competitors that afternoon.
