Milton Boys Cross Country Wins First State Title

By Andy Carr

CARROLLTON, GA -- The Milton High School Cross Country teams capped off their stellar season winning the school’s first-ever state championship on the boy’s side and the Lady Eagles matching their best-ever finish at the state meet with a hard fought 3rd place.

BOYS

The Eagles of Milton captured the school’s first ever state championship in dominating fashion on the Carrollton Elementary state meet course. Milton (1st-40 pts) bested 23 schools and was the overwhelming winner besting the defending champions Lambert (2nd-178 pts) by a whopping 138 points! The lopsided victory continues the Eagles stellar season where they have not lost a meet the entire season and continue to be ranked in the top-10 in the United States. Region-foe South Forsyth (3rd-202 pts) & Lakeside-Dekalb (4th-205 pts) joined Milton on the awards podium.

Individually, senior Sam Bowers (1st-15:58) repeated as the state champion with the fastest time on the course over all classifications. Bowers pulled away from senior teammate Nicholas Yanek (2nd-16:04) over the last 800 meters to secure the championship. Yanek ran with Bowers side-by-side the majority of the race to lead Milton to the state title. Joining Bowers & Yanek on the state podium was senior Dru Milton (8th-16:37) who was in the chase pack of the leaders the entire race and held on for a top-10 finish.

The impressive team victory came from the Eagles next 4 finishers as senior Ryan Beitzell (15th-17:08) & freshman Hayden Marshall (16th-17:11) closed out the scoring followed by senior Michael Malkowski (19th-17:20) & junior Luke Bonneville (28th-17:24) to capture the school’s first ever title in cross country. Next up for the boy’s team is a trip to the Nike Cross regionals in Cary, NC over Thanksgiving weekend with a birth on the line to the Nike Cross Nationals championship meet to be held in Portland, OR on December 2nd.

GIRLS

The Milton Lady Eagles overcame adversity and tough running conditions to again grace the team awards podium for the 4th consecutive year and the 6th time in the last 7 years. Milton (3rd-155 pts) bested 21 schools as the Lady Eagles got past arch-rival Walton (4th-159 pts) to match the program’s best ever result at the state meet.

Marietta (1st-62 pts) upended defending state champions South Forsyth (2nd-84 pts) to finish ahead of Milton. In a race that saw a lot of changes among the top Lady Eagle runners, senior Annie Gallagher (17th-20:37) led Milton for the first time this season and was closely followed by juniors Taylor Cushman (21st-20:45) & Faith Wagner (22nd-20:48) to put 3 finishers ahead most teams 2nd finisher.

But it was the running of first-year senior Adriana Christensen (45th-21:45) that proved to be the most important finisher as she passed Walton’s 4th and 5th runners along with 3 runners from West Forsyth, all in the last 75 meters of the race to push Milton to the 3rd place team spot!

Senior captain Emily Bowers (52nd-21:58) finished her historic career at Milton & rounded out the Lady Eagles scoring and in doing so became the first Milton girl (and 2nd Milton athlete) to be on four-straight top-4 state meet finishing Milton squads that have finished on the awards podium at the state meet.

Fellow senior captain Jessie Barnes (72nd-22:38) also concluded her career and was the Lady Eagles final finisher on a team that matched its best-ever finish at the state meet.

Overall, Milton continued a historic progression as the Eagles, beginning with the 2014 state meet, have become the top-program in Georgia high school cross country in the state’s largest classification with an average team finish, both boys and girls programs combined, at the state meet, at just over 3rd place.

Photos by Angie Butzow