Milton cross country teams all finish in the top three
October 9 | Roper Park | Jasper, GA | By Coach Andy Carr
Under the lights and before Tropical Storm Isaias hit, the Eagle cross country teams traveled up to Jasper, GA, for the annual Pickens and Grinnin’ Invitational meet to take on 20-plus schools and came away with top-three team finishes in every race of the meet.
Varsity Girls
The top-three 6A-ranked Lady Eagles took on region foe Johns Creek (2nd-87 pts) and 7A power West Forsyth (1st-67 pts), and in the process took down 15 schools. Milton (3rd-99 pts) was again paced by the front-running of junior Sadie Katekovich (6th-19:28) and was followed by fellow junior Lucie Blake (11th-19:46). A big race was turned in by junior Kenley Sirras (20th-20:29), just missing her all-time personal best. Senior captain Ava Kane (22nd-20:37) just missed her season’s best and kept the Lady Eagles close to the top two teams. Closing out the scoring was the huge personal best by junior Audrey Grose (40th-21:24), improving her best time by 33 seconds! Sophomore Sloane Robers (43rd-21:30) and senior Cara Tenhundfeld (56th-21:51) beat back many teams’ top-five scoring runners.
Varsity Boys
Going into this meet, Milton (3rd-118 pts) was predicted to be no better than 5th, but excellent up-front running and a solid close group of finishers in the scoring positions elevated the Eagles to a trophy-winning finish! Senior captain Will Chambers (6th-16:23) ran to a season’s best performance and in the process pulled along sophomore Noah Jenkins (11th-16:34) to an all-time personal best. Senior Jace Kasteler (19th-16:56) was next and went under 17 minutes for the first time to record an all-time best. Another solid run by freshman William Brown (32nd-17:14) brought him another all-time best, and sophomore William Gilbert (50th-17:47) finalized the scoring for Milton, which in the process defeated 15 scoring teams. Contributing to the top-three team finish were senior captain Tyler Nix (56th-17:51) and senior Logan Bradway (57th-17:52).
JV Girls
The Lady Eagles beat back 12 schools as Milton (2nd-50 pts) fell only to West Forsyth (1st-15 pts). Sophomore Angelika Stauffer (8th-23:21) raced to close to a two-minute personal best to lead the Lady Eagle runner-up effort. Senior Rachela Weitzel (9th-23:23) followed in a season’s best and was supported by fellow senior Brynn Kelly (11th-23:37) and freshman Mary Cate Case (13th-23:43), in another personal best by the freshman. Junior Sienna Perl (18th-23:56) was next, just missing her season and personal bests, to close out the team score for Milton.
JV Boys
Milton (2nd-82 pts) also ran into the West Forsyth (1st-15 pts) juggernaut but was still able to defeat 14 schools from all over North Georgia to garner runner-up honors. Sophomore Chase VanBelle (8th-18:32) led the Eagles with his medal-winning and personal best performance! Fellow sophomore Luc Souza (12th-19:03) was next while recording a personal best performance, as freshman Grayson Free (23rd-19:31) did the same and brought along senior Christopher Chen (25th-19:33) and sophomore Philip Jakubecy (32nd-19:46) to close out the scoring in the largest (269 finishers) race of the meet.
Next up for the Milton cross country teams is their annual Intra-Squad Relay on October 15, followed by the last regular-season meet at the Big Peach Mustang Stampede on October 24 in Acworth, GA, at Allatoona Creek Park.
