A school record run and fast performances lead Eagle Cross Country Teams
By Bill Marra/Andy Carr – 9/24/17, Cartersville, GA
The Milton Cross Country team took home the Wingfoot Cup for the third consecutive year on Saturday at the 3rd Wingfoot XC Classic, hosted by Atlanta Track Club at Sam Smith Park in Cartersville, GA. The Eagles earned the overall title, which was determined by overall team places in each of the varsity boys and girls championship races, with a dominating victory in the boys’ race and a 4th place finish for Milton in the girls’ race.
In the boys’ varsity race, Milton, the 15th ranked team in the USA (1st-32 pts) was the overpowering winner. Brentwood Academy of Tennessee (2nd-174 pts) & Pope (3rd-185 pts) trailed. Senior Sam Bowers rallied to a new school record (old record, 15:00, Bowers, 2017) over the 5 kilometer course in a time of 14:50. He closed on early race leader, Jacob McLeod of Trinity Christian (1st-14:50), and just missed earning his 4th individual victory of the season. Bowers had been runner-up in 2016 and 3rd in 2015 at this meet. Seniors Nicholas Yanek (3rd – 15:14) and Michael Malkowski (4th – 15:30) followed right behind Bowers, with Malkowski running a personal-best time by 11 seconds, same as Bowers. Seniors Dru Milton (14th – 15:52) and Ryan Beitzell (16th – 15:58) completed the scoring for the Eagles. Also
running varsity were junior Luke Bonneville (29th-16:13) and a personal best for freshman Hayden Marshall (48th-16:32). Milton bested region rival and defending 7A state champion Lambert (4th-190 pts) running one of the fastest team averages (15:29) ever in Georgia HS history as well as dispatching 28 other schools in the championship division.
The Milton (4th-172pts) Lady Eagles were lead again by sophomore, Abby Rindt (21st – 19:15). Rindt was consistently in the top-20 the entire race along with teammates that included senior Annie Gallagher (32nd – 19:29) whose performance was an all-time personal best and junior Taylor Cushman (38th – 19:42). In a strong and tight group, Milton was able to defeat many teams that had finishers in the top-15 with the running of junior Faith Wagner (49th – 19:55), and seniors Emily Bowers (50th – 19:55), Jessie Barnes (54th – 20:02), and Adriana Christenson (90th – 20:38), who all turned in strong performances as they all finished fairly close together. Region-rival & defending state champions South Forsyth (1st-116 pts) took the measure of the field and were followed by Marietta (2nd-165 pts) & Marist (3rd-168 pts). The Lady Eagles were just seven points behind 2nd place Marietta HS while besting 26 schools.
In the JV boys’ championship race, Milton (2nd-63 pts) just got edged out for the meet win as arch-rival South Forsyth (1st-58 pts) triumphed over the Eagles again. South Forsyth has been the only team to best Milton over the past two seasons but the Eagles have never finished closer than they did at Cartersville. Junior Gary Halverson (1st-16:45) and senior Cam Harman (2nd-16:45) raced neck and neck over the final stretch with Halverson leaning for the victor! Senior captain Andrew Blizzard (8th – 17:02), junior Anish Gupta (14th – 17:17), along with seniors Eric Franklin (38th – 17:42) and Austin Mueller (42nd – 17:42), and junior Gavin Roman (52nd – 17:50) all turned in all-time personal best performances earning a 2nd place team trophy. The Eagles bested 25 schools in the day’s largest race that had 445 finishers.
In the girls’ JV championship race, The Lady Eagles were outrun by 4 schools. Milton (5th-164 pts) had one of its strongest team performances of the season on the individual runner level but gaps between finishers really hurt the team effort on the scoring side. Junior Samantha Lenox (5th – 20:55) led the Lady Eagles running to a season best time. Junior Maddie Erbey (22nd – 21:32), sophomore Maggie Gibson (25th – 21:35), freshman Audrey Nichols (52nd – 22:13), all recorded all-time personal best performances and junior Emma Pettit (69th – 22:40), along with senior Casey Hutchison (70th – 22:40) contributed to the overall team scoring.
The Eagles will take a weekend off before heading to Greenville, SC to compete in the Gene Mullin Furman Invitational on Saturday, October 7th.
