Team victory in Girl’s JV Race Leads Eagles in Salem, Virginia
September 7th
Green Hill Park, Salem, VA
The Eagle cross country teams traveled for the 3rd time to the prestigious Knights Crossing Cross Country Invitational in Salem, VA. The meet, hosted by Cave Spring HS, was run on the Virginia State meet championship course, and Milton came away with three, top-3 team finishes against some of the best programs in the nation.
Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles led the day off with a hard-fought 3rd place team finish to defeat 38 scoring schools in one of the best early season meets on the east coast of the USA. Milton (3rd-199 pts) fell to Dobyns-Bennett (TN) (1st-60 pts) & nationally-ranked Blacksburg (VA) (2nd-75 pts) while upsetting the strong programs from Cardinal-Gibbons (NC) (4th-203 pts) & Reagan (NC) (5th-203 pts) to garner a team trophy! Senior Nyah Hernandez (10th-18:59) led the Lady Eagles & was in the top-5 most of the race before settling for a big 10th place finish while defeating 323 competitors! Junior Audrey Nichols (24th-19:59) dropped a 20-second personal best as senior co-captain Abby Rindt (42nd-20:35) & freshman Annalise Crow (45th-20:40) garnered many valuable spots to push Milton up in the team race and sophomore Jessica Albregts (92nd-21:46) closed out the team scoring! Also running varsity were freshman Gabby Beckman (102nd-21:57), senior Ella Langley (110th-22:06), junior Clare Petkash (118th-22:14) & sophomore Ella Katekovich (143rd-22:39).
Varsity Boys
Milton (8th-331 pts) defeated 32 schools in one of the most competitive races they will run all season! Defending Virginia boys state large-school classification champions Oakton (1st-70 pts), were the easy winners over the McCallie School (TN) (2nd-149 pts) and North Carolina’s Cardinal-Gibbons (3rd-165 pts). The Eagles were led by junior Hayden Marshall (14th-16:23) in his 3rd-best performance for the distance. Marshall was able to move up through the field as the race progressed to lead Milton’s contingent. Senior co-captain’s Spencer Watry (38th-17:01) & Joe Pick (62nd-17:25) followed. Juniors Jack Petkash (106th-18:10) & Connor Brunson (113th-18:14) concluded the Eagle scorers. Sophomore Davis Hobbs (115th-18:15), senior co-captain Alex Braswell (136th-18:25), in a personal best and sophomore Ethan Marcum (159th-18:37, rounded out the Eagles in a race which had 395 finishers.
JV Girls
In the most outstanding race of the day for Milton (1st-33 pts), the Lady Eagles dispatched 8 schools to take top-honors! Top-North Carolina programs Cardinal-Gibbons (2nd-54 pts) & Reagan (3rd-66 pts) were the next closest. Milton had previously been 3rd in their two previous trips to this meet in this division and this time raced on victory! Sophomore Maddie Robertson (3rd-22:11) challenged for runner-up honors the entire race and led the Lady Eagle effort. Junior Audrey Minton (4th-22:25) again was a top-finisher for Milton. A big surprise was senior Palak Mahajan (7th-22:34) and along with junior Natalie Ventura (8th-22:48) help put four Lady Eagle finishers in the top-10 overall finishing positions. Concluding Milton’s scoring was a strong finish by senior Katy Dickenson (11th-23:02). Junior Audrey Harris (14th-23:13) & sophomore Ella Rindt (16th-23:19) concluded Milton’s scoring athletes.
JV Boys
Milton (3rd-65 pts) came from behind to garner the final team trophy of the race to defeat 17 scoring schools! Blacksburg (1st-43 pts) narrowly defeated Reagan (2nd-45 pts) even though Reagan had its top-4 finishers in the top-9 overall spots! The Eagles used a pack-running effort to place five finishers ahead of Oakton’s (4th-81 pts) 3rd finisher to defeat the Cougars. Junior Lorin Tady (10th-18:32) led the charge as fellow juniors Ryan Braswell (13th-18:42) & Brendan Trainor (14th-18:43) provided Milton a strong 1-2-3 finish for the Eagles. But the story was the group or “pack” of junior Payton Massey (16th-18:45), freshman Cory Chambers (17th-18:45) and sophomore Andrew Baum (20th-18:49) all passing Oakton’s third runner in the final 200 meters for the final team trophy! Senior Noah Braswell (45th-19:39) was also a key factor in Milton’s 3rd place team finish.
Covered Bridge Invitational
The remainder of the Eagle Cross Country teams also competed at the Covered Bridge Invitational JV races at Garrard Landing Park in Alpharetta as their teammates were racing in Virginia. On the girl’s side Milton (5th-165 pts) defeated 15 schools as sophomore Shelby Howerton (36th-25:00) led the Lady Eagle contingent. In the boy’s race, junior Joe Shelley (74th-20:46) was top’s for Milton (14th-383 pts) in a race that had over 530 individual finishers!
The Milton Cross Country teams next see action as they host the 7th Milton Invitational on the Eagles home course on Saturday, September 14th. 26 schools (the largest field ever) coming from Augusta, Savannah & the metro-Atlanta area, are scheduled to compete on the Milton campus course known as one of the toughest in the USA. Action begins at 7:45am and then following the meet, a youth (ages 8-18) cross country meet will be staged on the Milton course hosted by the Alpha Crush Running Club with races beginning at 1pm.
