The Lady Eagles of Milton Lead the Way as Milton Performs Well at Marist Invite

9/10/16, Marist School, Atlanta, GA
By Andy Carr

After a 6-year hiatus from the Marist Coach Benson Double-Dip Cross Country Invitational, Milton returned to capture the Varsity Girls title and Varsity Boys runner-up spot to lead the Eagles in one of the most competitive meets so far this season.

Varsity Girls

Facing the strongest field of teams of the season from Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Georgia, the Lady Eagles rose to the occasion and captured the team title over 23 scoring schools!  Milton (1st-56 pts) used a strong group of three runners to split up visiting Winter Park of Florida (2nd-70 pts) top-runners to capture the team title!  Host Marist (3rd-96 pts) and West Forsyth (4th-118 pts) trailed.  Senior captain Marie Repasy (5th-19:33) again led the way for the Lady Eagles as she maintained close contact to the lead runners most of the race.  Freshman Faith Bobak (9th-19:52) made her presence known in the front group as well and held off two competitors for a top-10 overall finish.  Milton proved too-strong for the two-time defending Florida state champion ladies of Winter Park as senior Brooke Aumer (13th-20:23), sophomore Taylor Cushman (14th-20:23) and freshman Abby Rindt (18th-20:27) all finished with the Lady Wildcats 4th finisher!  Both sophomore Faith Wagner (33rd-21:12) and junior Emily Bowers (36th-21:18) bettered Winter Park’s 5th finisher securing the historic win for Milton!

Varsity Boys

Milton’s boys lost their first meet of the season to host Marist (1st-36 pts) but still bettered 23 scoring schools to finish as runner-ups.  Milton (2nd-65 pts) was clear of both Collins Hill (3rd-102 pts) and Dawson County (4th-182 pts).  Junior Sam Bowers (1st-16:13) set the course record and again led the team.  Bowers methodically moved up through the top-10 and just past 2-miles took the lead for good. Even a slight direction off course near the end of the race did not deter Bowers on his way to his 3rd consecutive overall meet victory!  In close pursuit was fellow junior Michael Malkowski (4th-16:30) who was in the lead group the entire distance. Junior Ryan Beitzell (12th-17:02) recovered well even after losing his shoe midway through the race.  Strong and competitive efforts by fellow juniors Cam Harman (23rd-17:41) and Dru Milton (25th-17:42) secured the runner up spot for the Eagles.  Also running on the varsity squad were junior Andrew Blizzard (32nd-17:56) and senior captain Joey Brovont (37th-18:03).

JV Girls

The Lady Eagles of Milton (2nd-65 pts) placed all five of their scoring runners in the top-16 to finish behind host Marist (1st-26 pts).  Junior Jessie Barnes (7th-22:17) led Milton to best 12 scoring schools. The strong finishing pack of sophomore Maddie Erbey (14th-22:52), freshman Kelly Scott (15th-23:02), seniors Fernanda Bonilla (16th-23:03) and Capri Ligon (17th-23:07) led Milton over region foe West Forsyth (3rd-80 pts) and Collins Hill (4th-106 pts).

JV Boys

Milton (3rd-75 pts) faced a very formidable Marist (1st-39 pts) squad along with region-rival South Forsyth (2nd-59 pts) to best 17 scoring schools.  Early race leader, senior Jake Vernon (6th-18:37) along with senior Pierce Baker (8th-18:38) led the Eagles with fellow senior Andy Butzow (15th-18:54) , freshman Joe Pick (19th-18:57) and sophomore Gary Halverson (27th-19:07) completing the Milton scoring.

Freshman/1st Year Race

Sophomore Will Newell (1st-19:12) led the Eagle boys squad to a team victory by going wire-to-wire for the individual win along with junior Casey Huthison (11th-24:59) leading the Lady Eagle effort.

Open Race

Recording another race win on the day, Milton sophomore Anish Gupta (1st-19:27) took the lead about halfway thru the race and led the Eagles that had 7 finishers in the top-9 finishing spots!  Senior captain Madison Sutton (1st-24:38) followed suit leading the Lady Eagles to a perfect team score (1st-15 pts) with Milton runners finishing 7 runners in the top-7 positions for the team victory!

Next up for the Milton High School Cross Country teams the Fulton County Schools championship, hosted by the Eagles at Milton on Saturday September 17th.