Individual performances highlight the Eagles Effort
9/20/19, Sam Smith Park, Cartersville, GA
By: Andy Carr
The cross country teams from Milton again participated in the Atlanta Track Club’s Wingfoot Cross Country Classic Meet held in Cartersville, GA, under dry & dusty but cool conditions for the 5th time and came away with many individual highlights that helped the Eagles at the most competitive meet so far this season.
Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles (11th- 322 pts.) bested 13 schools in the championship girls race run under the lights for the first time at this prestigious meet. Milton senior Nyah Hernandez (24th-18:59) tied her season’s best performance to once again lead the Lady Eagles. Freshman Annalise Crow (67th- 19:45) ran to a 55-second personal best while running in only one shoe for most of the race! Senior co-captain Abby Rindt (77th- 19:58) running a season’s best time. Junior Audrey Nichols (79th- 20:01) ran much of the race in the top-50 before a slight injury slowed her progress late in the race, but she still managed to run the 2nd-best performance of her career. Closing out the scoring for Milton was sophomore Jessica Albregts (129th- 20:43) in a 10-second personal best! Also running varsity for the Lady Eagles was junior Clare Petkash (21:04) in over a 1-minute personal best and freshman Gabby Beckman (178th- 22:11) in her 2nd-best effort time wise this season.
Varsity Boys
In one of the most competitive races the Eagles have had to face this season, Milton (23rd-480 pts.) bested only 2 teams in the championship race division as the individual performances highlighted the team’s effort again under the lights!
Junior Hayden Marshall (36th- 16:15) ran to his 2nd best performance in his career for the 5000-meter distance to lead the Eagles. Senior co-captain Spencer Watry (45th- 16:29) ran to a 9-second personal best and shows his track speed can carry over to the off-road courses. Milton had a tough go of it as most of the rest of the squad got caught up in a fall just after the start and lost contact with the main part of the race and never really were able to recover. Junior Jack Petkash (127th- 17:31) ran to a 39-second personal best followed closely by senior co-captain Joe Pick (152nd- 17:39), junior Connor Brunson (165th- 17:49), sophomore Dylan Bowden (170th- 17:58) and finally junior Lorin Tady (181st- 18:20). Brunson ran an all-time best with Bowden picking up his 2nd best time ever to help lead the Eagles.
JV Girls
Milton (8th- 231 pts.) had its best girls’ team performance of the meet from the JV Lady Eagles as they dispatched 12 schools! Personal bests highlighted this race for Milton as senior Ella Langley (14th- 21:06) ran in the top-10 most of the race before finishing just outside a medal-earning spot. Juniors Audrey Minton (50th- 22:12), Natalie Ventura (58th-22:25), Maddie Robertson (59th- 22:25) & sophomore Ellie Dickenson (22:30) led the team scoring while all ran either personal or seasonal best times!
JV Boys
The Eagles had a tough going as Milton (12th – 333 pts) bested only 9 schools but did see many fast-performances for their scorers in the race. Sophomore Ethan Marcum (36th-17:59) came on strong through the race to lead the Eagles. Fellow sophomore Charlie Reynolds (40th- 18:01) followed with junior Brendan Trainor (79th- 18:27) and sophomore Andrew Baum (85th-18:31) and junior Ryan Braswell (114th- 18:43) closing out the team scoring all running either seasonal or personal bests.
Freshman Races
Unique to this meet are freshman-only races for the freshman not running in the varsity championship division. Milton was led by Ella Butler (53rd- 24:08) in the girl’s race and Cory Chambers (27th-19:35) in the boy’s race. Milton was 15th- 364 pts. in the girl’s race and 7th-228 pts. in the boy’s race.
