Boys win 2nd title since 2017 as the Lady Eagles are 7th
Carrollton, GA | By Andy Carr
The Eagles boys’ cross-country team captured their 2nd ever state title in the 5A classification while the Lady Eagles concluded their season with a 7th place finish out of 24 schools.
BOYS
For only the second time in school history, the Milton (1st-61 pts) boys are the GHSA State Champions. The Eagles used a very close team finish to easily outdistance team favorite Clark Central (2nd-119 pts) by placing all-five of their scoring runners ahead of Clark Central’s 3rd finisher. Milton was the clear winner with all five of their scoring runners placing in the top-26 overall & out of 172 finishers. Pope (3rd-164 pts) was even farther in arrears. The Eagles triumphed over 24 scoring schools.
The combination of senior captain Justin Sevel (7th-16:43) and junior Everett Lawder (8th-16:46) once again paced the Eagles and brought the duo to the state podium. Sophomore Will Chambers (13th-17:05) raced with Sevel & Lawder for the majority of the race until slipping just out of the top-10. Not far behind Chambers was junior Jayin Batra (17th-17:15) to add valuable points to an already dominant team performance and finally senior Aviv Oshri (26th-17:29) closed the door on a championship team result as the final scorer for Milton. Junior Ryan Greathouse (49th-18:02) and senior captain Robert Claypoole (51st-18:03) ran together for most of the race and finished ahead of most of the school’s 4th and 5th runners to lift the Eagles to the ultimate team victory! This is Milton’s second ever state championship in cross country (the first was in 2017) following their first-ever sectional title along with a region victory just a week ago.
CONGRATULATIONS EAGLES!
GIRLS
The back-to-back region champions gave it a valiant effort and fell just short of a podium (top-4) team finish. Milton (7th-209 pts) defeated 17 schools while placing in the top-10 at the state meet for the 11th consecutive year & for the 17th time in the last 24 years! The girls’ team has raced at the state meet 22 of the past 24 years! Pope (1st-29 pts) was the easy winner with the Lady Eagles just missing the podium by only 37 points as region 7-5A teams went 4th through 7th place. Continuing her breakout season, junior Caroline Spain (22nd-21:10) once again led the Milton effort moving up almost 30 spots from last years state meet. Spain was closely followed by the freshman sensation Sadie Katekovich (27th-21:26), who ran with Spain most of the race. Katekovich was the 5th freshman finisher! Seniors Macy Schadt (53rd-22:07) and Ella Franke (60th-22:20) provided valuable scoring as sophomore Lucie Gallagher (68th-22:36) closed out the Lady Eagle effort. Sophomore Aarushi Dhawan (83rd-23:00) and senior Rowan Katekovich (122nd-24:00) were Milton’s final runners in the race which saw 173 finishers. The Lady Eagles concluded a very successful season that included 3rd place at sectionals & that 2nd consecutive Region 7-5A title.
