Milton Retains Eagle Cup!

By Coach Andy Carr

Milton HS
Milton, GA
September 6th

The cross country teams at Milton High School hosted their largest home meet & in-turn were able to defend their overall team title, The Eagle Cup, for the 4th year in a row, with 2 race wins & 4 runner-up finishes.

Varsity Boys
The Eagles came into the race predicted to be fourth but put together a strong team race to squeak out the overall race win! Milton (1st-98 pts) won a close battle with Pope (2nd-100 pts) & Lakeside-Dekalb (3rd-102 pts). 23 teams scored. Junior Will Chambers (2nd-17:25) had a historic race as he battled Caleb Townsend of North Atlanta the entire race to get the runner-up finish. Chambers' time on the course is the 8th fastest ever run by an Eagle runner on the difficult Milton layout. The overall winner, Andrew Bitsko (1st-16:53) of Lakeside Dekalb, ran the 4th best time ever on the course. The Eagles squeezed out the team win with contributions by senior captain Jayin Batra (12th-18:23), winning an individual medal, fellow senior Ryan Greathouse (23rd-18:54), junior Jace Kasteler (27th-19:02) & senior captain Veer Upadhyaya (34th-19:16). Also running on the victorious boys’ team were juniors Boston Vanbelle (61st-19:51) & Logan Bradway (69th-20:00).

Varsity Girls
Milton (2nd-74 pts) took down 16 teams but were turned back by the defending state champions Lady Greyhounds of Pope (1st-21 pts). The Lady Eagles were easily able to dispatch Chamblee (3rd-110 pts) & Lakeside-Dekalb (4th-150 pts). Senior captain Caroline Spain (5th-21:15) again led the way for Milton as the top 3 individual finishers in the race (Aislynn Dunn-Pope-19:45, Ella Alberici-Cambridge-19:46 & Josie Hutchinson-Pope-20:06) ran the 3rd, 4th & 8th fastest times ever on the home Milton course. Spain was able to turn back Pope’s 4th & 5th scorers. Sophomore Sadie Katekovich (13th-22:04) & junior Lucie Gallagher (15th-22:10) ran most of the race together to score valuable points for the Lady Eagles & also garnering individual medals. Excellent team running came from sophomore Kenley Sirras (23rd-22:58) & junior Aarushi Dhawan (24th-23:09) beating many teams 2nd & 3rd scorers. Freshman Sloane Robers (32nd-23:33) & junior Ava Kane (40th-23:59) provided valuable support for the runners-up.

JV Boys
The Eagles took on a few varsity programs & in the end lost a nail-biter team finish. Milton (2nd-68 pts) was just behind Northview’s varsity squad (1st-64 pts) but was able to turn back 21 scoring schools! Freshman Noah Jenkins (4th-19:09) was tops for Milton and senior Malin Schadt (8th-20:00) passed as many as 7 runners in the last 100 meters to garner a top-10 medal winning finish! Freshman William Gilbert (16th-20:20) and juniors Tyler Nix (19th-20:32) & Christopher Chen (21st-19:42) completed the scoring for the runner-up Eagles.

JV Girls
Milton (2nd-64 pts) also ran into Northview’s (1st-36 pts) varsity team but beat out 14 teams after starting their race very conservatively. Coming from as far back as 25th place, junior Cara Tenhundfeld (6th-24:43) led the Lady Eagle effort and was supported by sophomores Samantha Megenity (12th-25:11) & Libby Carnegie (13th-25:12), junior Rachela Weitzel (16th-25:18) & sophomore Ava Walker (17th-25:20) to give Milton the runner-up team finish.

Open Boys
The Eagles had a tough battle with North Atlanta (1st-39 pts) but Milton (2nd-52 pts) did turn back 8 schools to get the runner-up spot. Junior McClane Norman (7th-22:03), freshman Philip Jakubecy (8th-22:03) & senior Tripp Beerbower (9th-22:04) led the Eagle 2nd place effort.

Open Girls
Milton (1st-19 pts) turned back 5 schools with the dominating team win. Running her last home meet race, senior Anisya Joseph (1st-26:55) came from behind to get the overall win and was supported by sophomores Sienna Perl (4th-27:22) & Vivien McMurray (5th-27:55).

The Eagle cross country teams next see action on Saturday, September 13th in Huntsville, AL at the annual Southern Showcase meet with teams coming from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi & Florida to compete.