Cross Country Teams win 4th-Consecutive Home Invitational
Milton HS | Milton, GA | September 6th | by Andy Carr
The cross country teams at Milton High School hosted their largest home meet and in turn were able to defend their overall team title, The Eagle Cup, for the 4th year in a row, with two race wins and four runner-up finishes.
Varsity Boys
The Eagles came into the race predicted to be fourth but put together a strong team race to squeak out the overall race win! Milton (1st-98 pts) won a close battle with Pope (2nd-100 pts) and Lakeside-Dekalb (3rd-102 pts). 23 teams scored. Junior Will Chambers (2nd-17:25) had a historic race as he battled Caleb Townsend of North Atlanta the entire race to get the runner-up finish. Chambers’ time on the course is the 8th fastest ever run by an Eagle runner on the difficult Milton layout. The overall winner, Andrew Bitsko (1st-16:53) of Lakeside Dekalb, ran the 4th best time ever on the course. The Eagles squeezed out the team win with contributions by senior captain Jayin Batra (12th-18:23), winning an individual medal, fellow senior Ryan Greathouse (23rd-18:54), junior Jace Kasteler (27th-19:02) and senior captain Veer Upadhyaya (34th-19:16). Also running on the victorious boys’ team were juniors Boston Vanbelle (61st-19:51) and Logan Bradway (69th-20:00).
Varsity Girls
Milton (2nd-74 pts) took down 16 teams but were turned back by the defending state champions Lady Greyhounds of Pope (1st-21 pts). The Lady Eagles were easily able to dispatch Chamblee (3rd-110 pts) and Lakeside-Dekalb (4th-150 pts). Senior captain Caroline Spain (5th-21:15) again led the way for Milton as the top 3 individual finishers in the race (Aislynn Dunn-Pope-19:45, Ella Alberici-Cambridge-19:46 and Josie Hutchinson-Pope-20:06) ran the 3rd, 4th and 8th fastest times ever on the home Milton course. Spain was able to turn back Pope’s 4th and 5th scorers. Sophomore Sadie Katekovich (13th-22:04) and junior Lucie Gallagher (15th-22:10) ran most of the race together to score valuable points for the Lady Eagles and also garnering individual medals. Excellent team running came from sophomore Kenley Sirras (23rd-22:58) and junior Aarushi Dhawan (24th-23:09) beating many teams 2nd and 3rd scorers. Freshman Sloane Robers (32nd-23:33) and junior Ava Kane (40th-23:59) provided valuable support for the runners-up.
JV Boys
The Eagles took on a few varsity programs and in the end lost a nail-biter team finish. Milton (2nd-68 pts) was just behind Northview’s varsity squad (1st-64 pts) but was able to turn back 21 scoring schools! Freshman Noah Jenkins (4th-19:09) was tops for Milton and senior Malin Schadt (8th-20:00) passed as many as 7 runners in the last 100 meters to garner a top-10 medal winning finish! Freshman William Gilbert (16th-20:20) and juniors Tyler Nix (19th-20:32) and Christopher Chen (21st-20:42) completed the scoring for the runner-up Eagles.
JV Girls
Milton (2nd-64 pts) also ran into Northview’s (1st-36 pts) varsity team but beat out 14 teams after starting their race very conservatively. Coming from as far back as 25th place, junior Cara Tenhundfeld (6th-24:43) led the Lady Eagle effort and was supported by sophomores Samantha Megenity (12th-25:11) and Libby Carnegie (13th-25:12), junior Rachela Weitzel (16th-25:18) and sophomore Ava Walker (17th-25:20) to give Milton the runner-up team finish.
Open Boys
The Eagles had a tough battle with North Atlanta (1st-39 pts) but Milton (2nd-52 pts) did turn back 8 schools to get the runner-up spot. Junior McClane Norman (7th-22:03), freshman Philip Jakubecy (8th-22:03) and senior Tripp Beerbower (9th-22:04) led the Eagle 2nd place effort.
Open Girls
Milton (1st-19 pts) turned back 5 schools with the dominating team win. Running her last home meet race, senior Anisya Joseph (1st-26:55) came from behind to get the overall win and was supported by sophomores Sienna Perl (4th-27:22) and Vivien McMurray (5th-27:55).
The Eagle cross country teams next see action on Saturday, September 13th in Huntsville, AL at the annual Southern Showcase meet with teams coming from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida to compete.
