2018 Milton Cross Country Invitational Preview

For the first time in seven years, Milton cross country will host its invitational meet at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 at Milton High School.

For the past years, the Eagles have hosted the Fulton County Schools championships. However, due to declining team attendance by member schools, the Milton program has brought back its home meet with a quality field of 23 schools from all over the state to race on one of the arguably hardest courses in Georgia, if not the country.

Girls Varsity Team Race

The battle for the top-spot will be a close one with schools only about 10 miles apart being the current meet favorites. The Lady Bears of Cambridge are on a roll and have won both their opening meets with wins at Early Bird & Covered Bridge convincingly. The defending 6A State Champions look stronger than their squad in 2017 and are the team to beat. Host Milton comes in after a big win in the Championship race at the Carrollton Ortho Invite. The Lady Eagles are always strong on their home course and with their experience cannot be counted out. Milton’s win at Carrollton was despite not having their normal #5 runner competing. Both teams will be challenged from their close neighbor to the north & that’s South Forsyth. The always strong and very deep program brings one of their best squads ever to run on the Milton course for the first time. Not at full strength last week at Double Dip, South still finished a strong runner-up and will look to battle it out with their region and local rivals here at Milton.

Girls Varsity Individuals (Course record 18:43, Lindsay Billings, Northview, 2014)

Course experience will play a major role in who garners the top-spot as the Milton course is not one for the fleet-of-foot! Milton junior Nyah Hernadez has mastered the course as she has run the 8th best time by a Milton runner ever on the course at the team’s time trial last month. A win at Early Bird and a 4th at Carrollton show Hernandez is one of the favorites. Cambridge junior Ashley Secrest will also contend for the win and has run within 12 seconds of Hernandez on the course. South Forsyth counters with Madelynne Cadeau. The South junior is coming off a big win at Double Dip and a runner-up finish at Lambert River Run. The defending champion of this meet a year ago, Milton junior Abby Rindt, should not be counted out. She has the 6th best performance by a Milton runner ever on the course and was less than 5 seconds behind her teammate Hernandez at Carrollton. This will be Rindt’s 6th race on her home course. Others to watch: Taylor Cushman-Milton, Gracie O’Neal-Gordon-Lee, Grace Gerlach & Afton Hirschi-Cambridge & Luna McCauley-Paideia.

Boys Varsity Team Race

Just like the ladies, the team race will involve the same three programs, which on paper, looks like it will be very close and with a rich history of rivalry and being in such close proximity of each other, Milton, Cambridge & South Forsyth will battle it out on Milton’s tough course! You could toss a coin among the three teams to pick the overall winner as it is that close. The host Eagles will have their hands full but being at home is a definite advantage. Milton will rely heavily on its #4-5 runners to secure the win but it will have to contend with deep programs from both Cambridge & South Forsyth. The Eagles had a tough race at Carrollton last week and look to rebound. Cambridge is undefeated, besting the Eagles by a mere 5 points at Early Bird but took a dominating team win at Covered Bridge. South Forsyth looks to improve on their 3rd last week at Double Dip and repeat their winning performance from the Lambert River Run 2 weeks ago.

Boys Varsity Individuals (Course Record 16:19, Sam Bowers, Milton, 2017)

A big group of seniors looks to contend for the overall win and the battle up front should be a good one. Jack Filan of Cambridge is coming off a runner-up finish at Early Bird and has racing experience on the course. 3A state defending champion Devan Crow of North Hall looks to extend his undefeated season as Crow has won at Kosh Classic (some believe on the 2nd toughest course in the state at Westminster), North GA Championships, War Eagle Invite & West Hall’s Spartan Classic. Coming in from Evans, GA, Lakeside’s Mark White will be a factor as Lakeside-Evans has a history of running well at the Milton Course. White was recently 3rd at Battle of Atlanta in his only race effort of the season so far. Finally, Milton counters with co-captain Luke Bonneville. The Marcus (TX) transfer figured strongly in Milton’s state title run in 2017 and has the fastest time on the course by anyone running in Saturday’s meet. Others to watch: Gary Halverson & Hayden Marshall of Milton, Caleb Hall of North Forsyth & Michael Patterson of South Forsyth.

Eagle Cup

Unique to this meet, the awarding of the Eagle Cup, the award starting at the first Milton home meet in 2007 at the new Milton HS, is awarded to the best overall program at the meet from results of all six races being contested. Teams will score points from their team finishes in the Open, Junior Varsity & Varsity races to determine the Eagle Cup winner. Last awarded in 2011, Milton is the defending champion and Marist, the inaugural champion in 2007, is the only other school to win the cup.