Eagles Sweep the Races at Hill on Wheels/Fishy Meet outside Savannah
Richmond Hill, GA – October 13
Milton ‘s Cross Country teams were extremely successful this past weekend at the Hill on Wheels/Fishy Invitational, hosted by Richmond Hill High School at Sterling Creek Park in suburban Savannah.
Due to Hurricane Michael, The Eagles were forced to change their annual overnight meet trip from Albany to Richmond Hill at the last-minute but that did not deter Milton from delivering a overwhelming performance capturing and sweeping all four races that were contested.
Varsity Boys
In the first ideal weather conditions the Eagles have had all-season long, Milton (1st-36 pts) took advantage of a extremely low 52 second spread among it’s top-7 finishers to record the meet win over the Class 6A hosts Richmond Hill (2nd-49 pts) Wildcats. South Effingham (3rd-83 pts) followed. 14 teams scored in the race on the flat/sandy course.
Leading the charge was senior co-captain Luke Bonneville (2nd-16:26) along with sophomore Hayden Marshall (3rd-16:33). Also finishing in the top-10 was senior Gary Halverson (6th-16:48). But the difference in the meet was the Eagles tight-finishing and close pack of their 4th-7th runners all finishing within a 6 second span! Senior Anish Gupta (12th-17:13), juniors Spencer Watry (13th-17:18) & Joe Pick (14th-17:19) and finally senior co-captain Ben Reilly (15th-17:19) closed out the victory putting Milton’s top-7 finishers ahead of Richmond Hill’s 4th finisher. Also running varsity included freshman Davis Hobbs (33rd-18:17) & senior Gavin Roman (34th-18:23).
Varsity Girls
The Lady Eagles showed they mean business with a goal of another podium state finish at the state meet in 3 weeks with a decisive victory over 11 schools. Milton (1st-21 pts) overwhelmed host Richmond Hill (2nd-57 pts) & Savannah Christian (3rd-118 pts) which saw all the Lady Eagle runners finish in the top-20! There were 107 finishers in the race.
Never challenged from the start, Milton junior Nyah Hernandez (1st-18:42) established a new course record as she led from start to finish running most of the race alone on the flat/sandy course in ideal weather conditions. The Lady Eagles showed their strength as senior Taylor Cushman (2nd-19:12) & junior Abby Rindt (3rd-19:32) made it an Eagle 1-2-3 overall finish! Milton ran to their shortest spread among their scoring runners of the season with the efforts by senior co-captain Faith Wagner (8th-20:37) & sophomore Audrey Nichols (9th-20:42) which was a all-time best performance. Seniors followed to close out the victory for the Lady Eagles with co-captain Samantha Lenox (11th-20:55) & state champion lacrosse team member Maddie Erbey (15th-21:21) in her best race effort of the season & putting all seven Milton runners ahead of the hosts Lady Wildcats 4th scoring runner. Freshman Jessica Albregts (18th-21:25) & junior Maggie Gibson (19th-21:39) also competed on the Varsity Girls team.
JV Boys
Milton (1st-30 pts) easily outdistanced 8 schools in capturing the team title. Freshman Andrew Baum (3rd-18:31) lost his shoe in the first few steps of the race but still was a strong presence at the front of the race running the entire race with just one shoe! Junior Liam Wagenbrenner (5th-18:37) was also a medal winner.
JV Girls
The Lady Eagles of Milton (1st-18 pts) defeated 5 schools in completing a sweep of the races at the meet. Glynn Academy (2nd-80 pts) was a distant runner-up. Senior Olivia Lawson (1st-22:11) captured the overall race win leading 5 of her teammates to medal-winning performances and many seasonal-bests!
Junior Payton Schuchart (2nd-22:41), senior co-captain Viky Kangas (4th-22:59), sophomore Paige Chambers (5th-23:01), freshman Mary Bixler (6th-23:04) & sophomore Audrey Minton (7th-23:05) all were medal winners!
The Eagle Cross Country teams preceded this meet with another sweep of races at the RAM Invitational in Athens, GA on October 6that Monsignor Donovan Catholic School. Running on the GISA state meet course from 2017, Milton was the dominant team in attendance.
The Varsity Girls (1st-15 pts) along with the JV Girls & JV Boys ALL perfected scored their races with the Varsity Boys (1st-27 pts) completing the sweep of the meet!
Leading performances for the Eagles were Nyah Hernandez (1st) in the Varsity Girls Race, Hayden Marshall (3rd) in the Varsity Boys Race, Davis Hobbs (1st) in the JV Boys Race & Audrey Minton (1st) in the JV Girls Race.
Next up for the Milton Cross Country teams is the GHSA Area/Regional Meet at Boiling Park in Canton, GA on Saturday morning, October 20th in a meet that will determine the GHSA state meet qualifiers from our Area & region. The GHSA State meet for the 7A classification is Saturday, November 3rd at Carrollton ES in Carrollton, GA.
