Large North Carolina Meet Successful for Milton
McAlpine Park, Charlotte, NC | By Andy Carr
Milton’s Cross Country teams traveled to the Queen City to take on teams from four different states and came away with many high team finishes.
Varsity Boys
The 2nd ranked Eagles in the 5A classification took on teams from Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia and were able to place on the podium for the first time at this prestigious out of state invitational. Milton (3rd-128 pts) turned back 20 schools to walk away with the final team award. North Carolina schools Hoggard (1st-47 pts) and Myers Park (2nd98 pts) led the team race. Junior Everett Lawder (15th-16:39) was tops for the Eagles in garnering a medal-earning finish. Sophomore Will Chambers (19th-16:44) kept it close to Lawder and was able to pick up a race medal. Senior captain Justin Sevel (25th-16:55) missed a medal by just one spot but beat many team’s top-finishers. Another strong race by senior Aviv Oshri (39th-17:08) pushed the Eagles team score up and was closely followed by junior Jayin Batra (47th-17:15) to close out the Milton scoring. Also contributing to the team award for the Eagles were junior Ryan Greathouse (65th-17:30) and senior captain Robert Claypoole (69th-17:33).
Varsity Girls
While racing short-handed, the Lady Eagles rallied and were able to beat 10 teams at this high level regional meet. Milton (12th-303 pts) used a strong group of close finishes to finish in the middle third of the field. Freshman sensation Sadie Katekovich (34th-20:14) ran to a 35-second personal best to lead the Lady Eagles! She was followed closely by junior Caroline Spain (35th-20:15) to give Milton a solid 1-2 punch. Senior Ella Franke (55th-21:03), who missed her personal best by only 12-seconds, was next with fellow senior Rowan Katekovich (91st-21:59) and sophomores Aarushi Dhawan (96th-22:12) and Lucie Gallagher (102nd-22:32) not far behind to close out the team scoring for the Lady Eagles.
JV Girls
In the best team race of the day, Milton (2nd-102 pts) turned back 18 schools to get runner-up honors.
Leading the way were sophomores Ava Kane (15th-23:02) and Rachella Weitzel (18th-23:12) and senior Ashley Murray (19th-23:13).
Freshman/Sophomore Boys
The Eagles placed 4 finishers in the top-20 to best 17 schools. Milton (3rd-86 pts) got medal winning performances from sophomores Christopher Chen (7th-18:23), Jace Kasteler (9th-18:24) top-20 finishes from sophomores Tyler Nix (15th-18:42) and Logan Bradway (20th-18:51).
Junior/Senior Boys
Milton (4th-187 pts) pushed back 16 schools with senior Tomas Wilhelm (13th-18:09) leading the charge! Junior Braxton Herndon (30th-19:00) backed up Wilhelm’s strong performance along with junior Veer Upadhyaya (47th-19:56), junior Malin Schadt (48th-19:57) and senior captain Matthew Nichols (49th-19:58) all finishing together.
