Eagle runners excel at last regular season meet
October 15 – Roper Park, Jasper, GA – by Andy Carr
The Milton cross country teams traveled north to Jasper, GA to compete in the Pickens & Grinnin’ Invite for another night-time race to conclude their regular season and came away with two team wins and two team runners-up finishes as they head to the region meet next weekend.
Varsity Girls
Predicted to be a close race on paper between the Lady Eagles and the 5A top-ranked Woodland Lady Wildcats, Milton (1st-34 pts) ended up being the easy winner besting 14 scoring schools along with Woodland (2nd-66 pts) and county rival Northview (3rd-120 pts). In the Lady Eagles best team race of the season, Milton had all their scoring runners in before most team’s 2nd finishers. Junior Farrah Frith (1st-19:35) was the overall race winner, her 2nd meet win of this season, and did not take the lead until about halfway through the race and then pulled away for the easy victory while running an all-time personal best! The Lady Eagles had all their scorers in the top-15 with 4 runners in the top-8 overall places. A superb race by sophomore Calista Cacciatore (3rd-20:04) ran close to a 20-second personal best and was closely followed by fellow sophomore Ella Grace Malcom (7th-20:51) and ever-improving senior Genevieve Trainor (8th-20:52). Rounding out the scoring for Milton was senior captain Jessica Albregts (16th-21:14) as she led fellow senior Megan Stechschulte (20th-21:26), sophomore Leelah Dennis (26th-21:44). Also running varsity for the Lady Eagles were seniors Ellie Dickenson, also a captain (37th-21:58), Ella Katekovich (41st-22:05) and Shelby Howerton (50th-22:28). There were 136 finishers.
Varsity Boys
Running against one of the top-5 all-class teams in the state, Milton (2nd-139 pts) bested a very competitive field of 17 schools to take runner-up honors. West Forsyth (1st-54 pts) was the clear and dominant team winner. Junior Cory Chambers (5th-17:03) ran with the front group the entire race and survived a bad fall just past 2-miles to then rally and finish in the top-5. Sophomore Zach Patel (14th-17:28) was as far back as 30th and moved through the field to just miss the top-10 in a well-run race. Junior Oliver Stone (33rd-17:54) stayed with Patel most of the race until late and then with seniors Charlie Reynolds (captain, 39th-18:02 and Dylan Bowden (48th-18:13) and fellow junior Pearson Gillam (49th-18:13) pushed the Eagles into a secured 2nd place. Also running varsity were junior Jack Rea (69th-18:43), freshman Justin Sevel (70th-18:43) and junior Keller Wilson (71st-18:43) and sophomore Daniel Murray (91st-19:05). 165 runners finished the boys’ varsity race.
JV Girls
Team history was again made by the Lady Eagles as Milton (1st-15 pts) recorded the schools 11th “perfect score” in team history to easily outdistance eight scoring schools. The race highlight was the finishing stretch run by freshman Ivy Rindt (2nd-22:27) to garner runner-up honors over the senior runner from the Walker School in a dramatic finishing sprint finish. Directly impacting the team’s history-making “run” were fellow freshman Rowan Katekovich (4th-22:56) in a big personal best, fellow freshman Macy Schadt (5th-23:05), junior Gabby Beckmann (6th-23:19) in a season’s best and senior captain Sydnie Behrmann (7th-23:32). The Lady Eagles had 8 finishers in the first 14 overall positions.
JV Boys
Up against the strong Wolverine program out of West Forsyth (1st-15 pts), Milton (2nd-56 pts) beat back 12 scoring schools for runner-up honors. Leading the Eagles was sophomore Martin Sand (7th-19:06) and along with sophomore Joe Petkash (11th-19:16), senior captain Jorge Fabregas (12th-19:21), junior Benji Watry (15th-19:37) and sophomores Luke Erbey (19th-19:57) and Oliver Begali (20th-19:58) helped put Milton ahead of most of the teams racing. This was the largest race of the evening with 224 finishers.
The Milton cross country teams enter the post-season with the Region 5-7A GHSA championship meet Saturday, October 23rd at Boling Park, in Canton, GA with the top-4 varsity teams and top-6 individuals qualifying for the November 6th GHSA State meet at Carrollton Elementary School in Carrollton, GA.
