Milton Cross Country Captures Eagle Cup

The 9th Milton XC Invitational saw the meet’s largest turnout of schools and runners on the always challenging on-campus course but produced some incredible individual performances and exciting team races.

GIRLS VARSITY
This was the race of the meet as the top-3 finishers were together the entire time and the final finish was all-3 finishing within a 2-second span! Senior Alexa Hoppenfeld (1st-20:10) of Riverwood went straight to the front at the gun and was on the point the entire race. Hoppenfeld was making her season debut and looked to be on a mission as she continued to hold off junior Claire Petersen (2nd-20:11) of Blessed Trinity & senior Carmel Yonas (3rd-20:11) of South Forsyth. Yonas & Petersen tried to pass Hoppenfeld but that never happened as Hoppenfeld, & Petersen ran to the 9th best on the Milton course and Yonas now the 10th best ever on the difficult Milton layout. One of the outstanding performances of the day came from sophomore Erin O’Brien (7th-21:20) of Jackson County. Running just 40-seconds off her personal best, O’Brien is one to watch as this season progresses.
Petersen’s teammates backed up her performance with a convincing win as Blessed Trinity (1st-66 pts) bested South Forsyth (2nd-91 pts) and the host Lady Eagles of Milton (3rd-115 pts). The Titans put 3 finishers in the top-10 to turn back a total of 18 scoring schools. The Lady Chiefs of Sequoyah (4th-125 pts) had a tremendous day even with no finishers in the top-10 besting some strong 6A programs including Riverwood (5th-158 pts) & Cambridge (6th-159 pts). Sophomore London Ray (4th-20:55) & junior Kaitlyn MacKenzie (8th-21:22) were Blessed Trinity’s other top-10 finishers that put them upfront in the end.

BOYS VARSITY
It ended up being a solo run for senior Ben Bergey (1st-17:11) of South Forsyth as he took the lead up the first hill and was never seriously challenged for the overall victory. His time would have made him a top-10 performer all-time on the course, but he has a better one (17:06) set last year. Milton senior captain Cory Chambers (2nd-17:34) ran to a 2-second course personal best while chasing Bergey which improved his 10th best performance on the course by an Eagle runner. Chambers was never really threatened as well for runner-up honors. The battle for 3rd was a good one with sophomore Benjamin Winn (3rd-17:38) of South Forsyth prevailing in a mad dash finish with senior Dillon Shin (4th-17:40) of Cambridge & sophomore Loden Kohrman (5th-17:42) of Blessed Trinity.
The host Eagles of Milton (1st-68 pts) continued their undefeated season with a convincing win over region rival South Forsyth (2nd-111 pts) and ranked teams Blessed Trinity (3rd-118 pts) & Paideia (4th-118 pts). There were 22 scoring schools in the varsity boy’s race. The battle for the final 3rd place trophy came down to the tightest of tiebreakers as the Titans sophomore Paul Cotter (75th-20:09) bested the Pythons sophomore Raja Hofmeister (76th-20:10) by 1-second & one place! The Eagles of Milton worked up through the field the entire race as Chambers took care of business upfront. Milton’s 5th (senior Keller Wilson), 6th (junior Danny Murray) & 7th (senior Pearson Gillam) finishers were as far back as 80th place through the first kilometer before moving up and besting most team’s 4th & 5th finishers to secure the team title.

EAGLE CUP
This award is given to the team that scores well in all 6 races contested at the meet. Previous winners have included Marist (2007), host Milton (2008-11), South Forsyth (2018) & Lambert (2019 & 2021). This year’s competition was a close one with Blessed Trinity winning all the girls’ races & Milton winning all the boys’ races, so it came down to which team scored well in the races they did not win. Blessed Trinity (2nd-11 pts) only got a 3rd in the varsity boys’ race & South Forsyth (3rd-10 pts), who did not field any teams in the open races, was 3rd in JV Boys, 2nd in JV Girls, 2nd in Girls’ varsity & 2nd in Boys varsity but the Eagles of Milton (1st-14 pts) prevailed with a 2nd in the open girls and a pair of 3rds in the JV girls & Varsity girls to capture the Eagle Cup title for the first time in 11 years!