Eagle cross country teams record many seasons bests performances
Saturday August 24 | Whitesburg, GA | By Andy Carr
The Milton cross country teams traveled to their largest meet of the season hosted by Alexander HS and took advantage of great weather conditions & a flat & fast course to record many personal best times while placing well against 30+ competing schools.
Varsity Boys
In their most competitive race of the season so far, Milton (3rd-142 pts), outran 24 schools running their fastest team average (16:17) since last fall. The Eagles lost a close team battle to surprise Jones County (1st 134 pts) & cross-town rival Cambridge (2nd-135 pts). Senior captain Justin Sevel (6th-15:51) once again led the Eagles and was accompanied by junior Everett Lawder (10th-15:55) for most of the race. Also scoring for Milton were sophomore Will Chambers (32nd-16:11), junior Jayin Batra (36th-16:27) & the big personal best from senior Aviv Oshri (58th-16:54).
Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles raced hard against many of the state’s top-programs while recording many personal best performances. Milton (5th-173 pts) dispatched 16 teams while battling for a top 3 overall team place. Pace Academy (1st-91 pts) & upstart Jones County (2nd-123 pts) paced the field. Both Starr’s Mill (3rd-142 pts) & Chamblee (4th-145 pts) edged out the Lady Eagles. Junior Caroline Spain (15th-19:48) led Milton with a big personal best and raced side-by-side with senior Macy Schadt (17th-19:54) all the way to the finish. Team scorers included the freshman duo of Kenley Sirras (44th-21:04) & Ava Walker (51st-21:54) along with sophomore Aarushi Dhawan (66th-21:39) all recording personal best performances.
JV Boys
Coming down to a tiebreaker, Milton (4th-142 pts) bested 20 scoring teams while just missing 3rd to Chamblee (3rd-142 pts) based on each team’s 6th-finisher. Starrs Mill (1st-39 pts) dominated the race with Lovett (2nd-127 pts) as runner-up. Junior Braxton Herndon (6th-18:49) led the Eagles in a personal best with sophomores Christopher Chen (15th-19:19) & Nolan Williams (37th-19:37) leading the Milton effort.
JV Girls
Milton (3rd-128 pts) turned away 16 schools while matching the best team finish of the day. Both Woodward Academy (1st-33 pts) & Holy Innocents’ (2nd-84 pts) outpaced the Lady Eagles. Junior Sophia Hayes (17th-23:49) led Milton’s finishers as sophomores Medhya Sivaganesh (24th-24:04), Cara Tenhundfeld (28th-24:21), Brynn Kelly (31st-24:29) & Emily Chambliss (33rd-24:31) closed out the Lady Eagle scorers.
Open
In the shorter open race Milton placed 5th in both the boys & girls team races besting 4 & 5 teams respectively. Freshman Eduardo Perez (17th-11:04) led for the boys while junior Neha Kapil (7th-12:58) paced the girls team effort.
The Eagle cross country teams compete next at home on Saturday, September 7th while hosting 29 schools at the 11th Milton Invitational on the schools on-campus racecourse. The Eagles are the defending overall program/Eagle Cup Champions & will compete against schools from all over the state & many different classifications. Meet info: https://ga.milesplit.com/meets/571817-11th-milton-xc-invitational-2024
