Eagles finish top-3 in every contested race
Saturday, August 19th – Apalachee HS, Winder, GA – By Andy Carr
The Milton cross country teams traveled to Winder, GA to compete at the Apalachee Season Opener Invitational Meet and were very successful in every race division the Eagles competed in.
Varsity Boys
Led by senior captain Zach Patell (2nd-16:05), running the 6th best time ever on the Apalachee campus layout & a personal best, 9th-ranked Milton (2nd-73 pts) narrowly lost to top-ranked Brookwood (1st-69 pts) while dispatching 21 scoring schools! With a hard-charging last half-mile, junior Justin Sevel (3rd-16:22) put the Eagles in a position to win the meet. Senior Daniel Murray (17th-17:38) followed and was backed up by the personal best of senior captain Luke Erbey (23rd-17:54) & fellow senior Parker Boys (28th-18:08) to close out the Eagle scorers. Also running varsity were sophomores Ryan Greathouse (33rd-18:12) & Jayin Batra (45th-18:42).
Varsity Girls
In a race where the team outcome was so close to call until the final runners finished, the Lady Eagles, led by senior captain Ella Grace Malcom (4th-19:44), just missed out on the meet victory. Milton (3rd-61 pts) beat out 18 schools & was in the hunt to win with 6A powerhouse Gainesville (1st-53 pts) & 7A 8th-ranked rival Brookwood (2nd-57 pts) just narrowly edging the Lady Eagles. After Malcom, the hard-charging junior, Macy Schadt (8th-20:25) ran a big personal best and moved up from 17th place at the mile mark to earn a top-10 medal. Senior captain Calista Cacciatore (14th-21:17) followed with fellow senior Leelah Dennis (21st-21:55) & junior Ella Franke (22nd-21:55) closing out the Milton scorers. Juniors Ivy Rindt (42nd-23:26) & Rowan Katekovich (45th-23:36) also ran on the varsity team.
JV Boys
With 4 finishers in the top-10 overall finishing positions, Milton (1st-30 pts) turned back a stubborn Brookwood (2nd-35 pts) squad to get the team win and beat 14 scoring schools. Sophomore Everett Lawder (1st-17:47) led from the start & was never challenged. The Eagles then had freshman Will Chambers (3rd-18:05) & Luke Rasmituth (4th-18:17) along with senior Jayson Faupel (10th-18:53) & freshman Tyler Nix (12th-19:02) score for the winning Eagles team.
JV Girls
The Lady Eagles kept it close to the Lady Broncos of Brookwood (1st-38 pts) but Milton (2nd-45 pts) had to settle for the runner-up spot while beating 13 scoring schools. Freshman Lucie Gallagher (6th-23:23) led a pack of four Lady Eagles that finished within 12-seconds of each other. Sophomore Hollis Thompson (8th-23:35), freshman Caroline Spain (9th-23:39), senior Makenzie Schadt (10th-23:42) & junior Grace Lochman (12th-23:49) were the scorers for runner-up Milton.
Open Races
Milton (girls 1st-22 pts & boys 1st-28 pts) turned back 9 scoring schools to win both team titles.
The Lady Eagles were led by freshman Sophia Koagel (2nd-25:36) & the Milton boys had senior Martin Sand (2nd-19:05) in the leading position.
Next up for the Eagle cross country teams is the Bob Blastow/Early Bird Invitational this Saturday, August 26th at the McIntosh Nature Preserve Park in Whitesburg, GA, one of the faster courses in the state where up to 64 teams will compete in over 9 separate races.
