Nationally ranked boys program again paces team’s high finishes
10/14/17, Gainesville, GA
By Andy Carr, Photos By Paul Malkowski
The cross country teams of Milton High School travelled to the Coach Wood Invitational in Gainesville, GA for the 14th consecutive year and came away with two team victories, two 3rd places and two fourth places over the six races in which the Eagles competed.
VARSITY BOYS
T
he 9th ranked (in the USA) Eagles of Milton (1st-34 pts) completely overwhelmed the championship field of 20 teams and in turn besting the defending state champions for the second time this season by over 100 points! Region-rival & defending state champion Lambert (2nd-141 pts) & Marist (3rd-167 pts) trailed. Milton put their 5 runners in the top-18 overall places to easily secure the team win in a race of close to 165 finishers. As he has done all season long, senior Sam Bowers (2nd-15:42) paced the Eagles in a tough race with Jacob McLeod (1st-15:23) of Trinity Christian. Closing late was senior teammate Nicholas Yanek (3rd-15:50) who made the Eagle 1-2 finish in the top-3 spots! Seniors again led Milton with Michael Malkowski (8th-16:12), Dru Milton (13th-16:26) and Ryan Beitzell (18th-16:35) completed the scoring for the winning Eagle team. Junior Luke Bonneville (42nd-17:07), freshman Hayden Marshall (47th-17:10), senior Camden Harman (53rd-17:18), junior Gary Halverson (67th-17:27) & finally senior-captain Andrew Blizzard (78th-17:38) all competed on the victorious Eagle squad!
VARSITY GIRLS
The Lady Eagles (ranked 5th All-Class in Georgia) again faced all the top-squads in the state and in their classification and finished a very strong fourth besting 14 scoring teams! Milton (4th-124 pts) fought hard the entire race but again was bested by the same three teams that beat them just 3 weeks ago at the Wingfoot Invite. Region-foe & defending state champions South Forsyth (1st-44 pts) led the way with Marietta (2nd-74 pts) & Marist (3rd-110 pts) pacing just ahead of the Lady Eagles. Sophomore Abby Rindt (18th-19:54) battled her way into the top-20 to lead Milton’s effort. Junior Taylor Cushman (21st-19:58) was strong early on and held her spot the majority of the race just breaking the 20-minute barrier. Senior Annie Gallagher (30th-20:15) followed with junior Faith Wagner (32nd-20:16) moving steadily through the field to almost catch her Lady Eagle teammate. Senior co-captains followed with Jessie Barnes (38th-20:28) and Emily Bowers (70th-21:09) and then fellow senior Adriana Christensen (82nd-21:19) closed out Milton’s hard-fought effort. Also running varsity were juniors Samantha Lenox (92nd-21:38) & Maddie Erbey (99th-21:51) along with sophomore Maggie Gibson (122nd-22:30). There were 166 finishers.
JV BOYS
After losing to their region-rival South Forsyth (2nd-47 pts) for the past 7 meets, the Eagles of Milton (1st-45 pts) finally put together a winning team performance to best South and win the team title as well. There were 19 scoring teams in the race with Marist (3rd-98 pts) the next closest to the two rivals! Going 1-2 overall in the race and securing the team win were junior Anish Gupta (1st-17:48) and senior Austin Meuller (2nd-17:49) besting 176 finishers. The Eagles had 7 finishers in the top-22 with 3 in the top-9 to claim the overall team win. A big race by sophomore Joe Pick (9th-18:03) that saw him move up 40-50 positions through the race along with senior captain Jack Rush (14th-18:12) & fellow senior Kai McKeever (19th-18:19) securing the team victory! Junior Gavin Roman (20th-18:28) & senior captain Eli Jones (22nd-18:29) pushed other teams scores higher for Milton to best South by the narrowest of margins!
JV GIRLS
Facing the Marist (1st-20 pts) juggernaut, Milton (4th-157 pts) bested 12 schools as the Lady Eagles also trailed Marietta (2nd-45 pts) & Harrison (3rd-102 pts) to just miss the podium spot. Senior Casey Hutchison (27th-22:44) & freshman Audrey Nichols (28th-22:49) paced Milton along with juniors Peyton Stanley (37th-23:08), Viky Kangas (43rd-23:16) and freshman Natalie Ventura (44th-23:17). 151 finishers were recorded.
OPEN BOYS
Milton (3rd-80 pts) held their own in the largest race of the day besting 13 schools. Leading the way was junior Ethan Aumer (9th-19:28) in a race with 412 finishers.
OPEN GIRLS
The Lady Eagles bested 12 schools as Milton (3rd-95 pts) just held-off Mill Creek (4th-102 pts) and were bested by Harrison (1st-53 pts) & Lovett (2nd-53 pts). Freshman Samantha Ventura (7th-23:41) led the Lady Eagles just missing her best by 3-seconds as the race saw 399 finishers.
