Milton Eagles Cross Country Teams Victors in Regional Meet

The cross country teams swept all scoring races at the GHSA Region 6-AAAAA chapmpionship meet at Garrard Landing Park in Alpharetta, qualifying them for the GHSA State Meet to be held in Carrollton on Saturday, Nov. 5.

Varsity Girls

Picking up right where they left off, the Lady Eagles easily captured their second consecutive region crown (33 pts) to again defeat county rivals Roswell (2nd-57 pts), Centennial (3rd-58 pts) and the Wolverines of West Forsyth (4th-110 pts) and qualify for the state meet. With three runners in the top-6, the first time in school history, Milton qualified three runners individually for the state meet.

Led by the overall victory of junior Annie Kelly (19:19), the Lady Eagles will toe the line at Carrollton next weekend. Also qualifying for the state meet individually were juniors Jacqueline Mahoney (4th-19:59, matching her all-time best) and junior Blair Gelb (6th-20:06). Milton put their top-7 runners ahead of Roswell’s 5th runner to garner the repeat victory. Junior Olivia Koerner was next (8th-20:10) followed by senior Amanda Lockwood (14th-20:47, a personal best), junior Maddie Butzer (16th-20:53) and freshman Juanita Pardo (17th-20:53, missing her best by 3 seconds). The Lady Eagles are ranked 6th All-Class and 4th in AAAAA going into the state meet.

Varsity Boys

After losing the Fulton County Public Schools Championship by 6 points, the Eagles have been undefeated since with wins at Bobcat Classic (FL) and the Nike/Coach Wood Invite and now are region champions for the first time since 1999. With all-5 scorers in the top-8, Milton dominated the meet winning by 40 points over Centennial (24 to 64, and running their fastest team average ever at16:36 for their top-5 runners) who upset previous 8th-ranked Roswell (79 pts) and the Raiders of Alpharetta (118 pts).

For the second week in a row, junior Nate Riech led the way and captured the region title in a personal best of 16:22. Riech took the lead with less than 200m remaining and easily pulled away for the win over Kane Davis of Centennial (again, for the second week in a row after losing to him at the Fulton County meet just a month ago).

Senior Kegan Baird led the Milton onslaught as he took control early in the race and led to just past the halfway mark but again, like the Lady Eagles, was one of four individual state qualifies with his top-6 finish (4th-16:35, a personal best). Followed by fellow senior Anthony Machan (5th-16:36, also a personal best) and junior Ryan Kelly (6th-16:38, also a personal best and the same place he finished in 2010 at this meet) the Eagles were firing on all cylinders. The 4th ranked Milton team (in AAAAA and 5th All-Class) was anchored by junior Justin Thornsberry (14th-17:19) and senior co-captain Chris Blauvelt (17th-17:25, also a personal best). The region title after an 11-year drought was sweet for the Eagles as they also head to Carrollton and the state meet as one of the favorites to grace the podium on Nov. 5.

JV Girls

Finally duplicating their JV teammates, the JV Lady Eagles pulled that miracle of the sport and perfect score their race and defeated six teams in the process. Their 15 points, only the second  time in school history but twice in one season (the JV boys scored a perfect 15 at the Volunteer Classic in TN in early September) was a cap to a perfect season where the team was undefeated in seven meets it contested. Soundly beaten Roswell (50 pts) followed.

Freshman Amy Ruiz led the charge with the overall win (21:19) to barely edge out senior Alyssa Strom (21:19). The remainder of the scoring for Milton included freshman Meagan Thistleton (3rd-21:26), freshman Hallie Howell (4th-21:30, a personal best) and senior Sarah Williamson (5th-21:31, after being hit by a loose dog and falling two times).

JV Boys

Showing the reason they had not lost a meet all season, the JV Eagles placed their five scoring runners in the top-10 places, to defeat six other teams and scored only 36 pts to close out their campaign of excellence. As far back as 12th with a little more than a mile to go, junior Jammer Howell made a late-race charge and fell just short, losing by 1-second (2nd -17:34) while running an all-time best effort.

Milton then took spots 7-10 and 12 & 13th and 15th through 17th to easily win their 4th race of the meet. Following Howell, sophomore Kevin McGorrey followed (7th-17:52), then senior Brent Neal (17:52), Junior Tom Jurgens (9th-17:55) and senior Andy Holben (10th-18-Flat)