Milton Cross Country Opens Season with Time Trial Meet
Eagles Begin Defense of State Title, Set Rosters
The Milton High School Cross Country teams opened up their season with their traditional Time Trial Meet to set its roster but also to see where the teams stand, fitness-wise, as the boy’s look to defend their state championship & the girls look to improve on a school-best 3rd place finish at the state meet in 2017.
GIRLS RACE
As soon as the starter’s pistol fired, the girls race winner was already in front and stayed there the entire race. Junior Nyah Hernandez (1st-21:15), running in her first season of cross country for Milton, took out the race hard and was never challenged as she went on to become the 8th-fastest Milton performer ever on the course! Hernandez performance is even more outstanding as the course has been mulched and very wet thus making the surface very slow. Following Hernandez, junior Abby Rindt (2nd-22:21) and senior Taylor Cushman (3rd-22:30) ran most of the race together until Rindt pulled away late for the runner-up spot. Also finishing in the top-7 positions (which will set the varsity squad for the next meet) were senior captains Faith Wagner (4th-23:29) & Samantha Lenox (5th-23:35), sophomore Audrey Nichols (6th-23:49) and senior Maddie Erbey (7th-24:18).
BOYS RACE
Following suit, the boy’s race played out much of the same way as sophomore Hayden Marshall (1st-18:03), led from the gun and ran unchallenged to the victory. Marshall is one of only two returners from the state championship boys roster and will be one of the team leaders this season. Senior captain Luke Bonneville (2nd-19:00 & the other returner from the 2017 state championship team) pulled away late from a big group of 5 runners to finish as the runner-up. The next group of four finishers were only separated by 10-seconds with senior Gary Halverson (3rd-19:30), senior captain Ben Reilly (4th-19:34), junior Spencer Watry (5th-19:36) & senior Anish Gupta (6th-19:40). Senior Gavin Roman (7th-20:21) closed out the varsity squad roster for the team’s first meet.
The Milton High School Cross Country teams are next in action on Saturday, August 18th at the Zack Wansley Clash, hosted by Chapel Hill HS, at Clinton Farms Nature Preserve in Douglas County.
