Eagle Cross Country Teams Qualify for State Meet
Chattahoochee Hills | Cedar Grove, GA | By Andy Carr
On a perfect day for distance running, the Milton Eagle Cross country teams competed at the GHSA 5A Sectional Meet and came away with 2 region titles, a sectional championship and qualified for the state meet.
BOYS
The Eagles showed why they are a podium threat at the state meet with a convincing overall sectional victory over 27 teams and in the process captured the Region 7 title! Milton (1st-44 pts) took care of region rival Chattahoochee (2nd-78 pts) and Cherokee County champion Creekview (3rd-104 pts) to capture the sectional win. Out front for the Eagles was senior captain Justin Sevel (3rd-15:53) who also won the region individual title. Sevel was in the chase pack of the leader and asserted himself late in the race to finish in the Top 3. Milton then had sophomore Will Chambers (6th-16:01) come in and was closely followed by juniors Everett Lawder (8th-16:06) and Jayin Batra (11th-16:18) to put 4 finishers in the Top 15 overall finishing places. Senior Aviv Oshri (16th-16:36) was next as the Eagles top-5 finishers all individually qualified for the state meet! Junior Ryan Greathouse (21st-16:48) just missed the top-20 and was followed by senior captain Robert Claypoole (28th-16:58) to close out Milton’s team victory. All the Eagle runners achieved All-Region honors and captured the region championship just a year after they had failed to qualify for the state meet and finished 5th at Region. The team ran their fastest team average time for the season and Chambers, Batra, Oshri, Greathouse and Claypoole all ran to all-time best personal performances.
GIRLS
Continuing to show improvement, the Lady Eagles surprised many by defending their region title and besting 23 schools in the sectional race to qualify for the state meet. Milton (3rd-155 pts) was predicted to be 6th but strong pack running gave the Lady Eagles wins over region rivals Gainesville, Chattahoochee, Roswell and Johns Creek, who a month ago had won the Milton Invitational. Pope (1st-29 pts) was the dominant team winner with McIntosh (2nd-137 pts) just edging out Milton. Junior Caroline Spain (14th-19:30) again led the Lady Eagles with her 2nd-best ever performance and was closely followed by the freshman-phenom Sadie Katekovich (15th-19:37) in a 36-second personal best time! Both Spain and Katekovich individually qualified for the state meet! Backing up those two was the all-region performance by senior Macy Schadt (25th-19:56) and fellow senior Ella Franke (47th-20:39). Closing out the scoring for Milton was sophomore Lucie Gallagher (54th-20:56) in a personal best performance. Also running for the Lady Eagles were sophomore Aarushi Dhawan (58th-21:05) in another personal best and freshman Kenley Sirras (121st-23:13). With that Milton is now headed to the state meet for the 21st time in the last 23 years and for the 11th year in a row.
The Milton cross country teams will conclude their season THIS Friday, November 8th at the GHSA 5A State Meet at Carrollton Elementary School in Carrollton, GA. The boys race at 10:30am and the girls race at 11:15am. The boys last won a state championship in 2017 and the girls’ best finish at the state meet was 3rd place, twice (2014 and 2017).
