Milton Cross Country Opens Season At Zach Wansley Clash

By Coach Andy Carr

The Eagle cross country teams traveled to Boundary Waters Park in Douglas County to compete at the Zach Wansley Clash and came away with an all-time performance and many top team finishes!

Varsity Boys

While resting most of their top-runners on the team, Milton (4th-97 pts) still held their own against 11 scoring schools that were running their top-runners! Defending 6A state champions Alexander (1st-44 pts) led the way with county rivals Alpharetta (2nd-51 pts) close behind. Newnan (3rd-73 pts) followed. Senior Dru Milton (2nd-16:12) led the way for the Eagles in a new 37-second personal best and became the 8th-fastest performer in school history (records since 2005)!

Dru Milton was in the lead group the entire race and was in contention for the race win all the way until the final straightaway! With the Eagles resting most of their top runners, Milton relied heavily on top-JV runners to step-up and compete on the varsity level. Sophomore Joe Pick (21st-18:07) led the group as he moved up many positions through the entire race! In a close and tight pack of finishers, the Eagles upset 7 varsity programs with the strong group running of junior Anish Gupta (24th-18:13), junior Gavin Roman (26th-18:19) & senior captain Jack “JR” Rush (28th-18:20).

JV Girls

The Lady Eagles faced a strong & deep squads from Alpharetta (2nd-60 pts) & Landmark Christian (3rd-62 pts) but came from behind to win the meet! Milton (1st-33 pts) took control of the race just before the 2-mile mark and with many fast finishes were able to best 8 scoring schools by placing their top-5 scorers in the top-9 overall finishers! Running a controlled race, sophomore Maggie Gibson (4th-22:53) moved steadily through the field to lead the Lady Eagle effort.

Coming from farther back, senior Jocie Toner (5th-23:00) led a group of Milton runners to secure the team victory. Sophomore Vicky Kangas (7th-23:21), senior Casey Hutchison (8th-23:27) & sophomore Chloe Steinbeck (9th-23:32) all pushed past Alpharetta's 3rd & Landmark’s 4th runner to bring Milton to the front & the eventual team race win.

JV Boys

Again Milton faced a strong & deep Landmark Christian (1st-26 pts) team and had to settle for runner-up honors. Milton (2nd-51 pts) bested 6 scoring schools that saw the Eagles place 3 runners in the top-8 overall places. Close to 200 runners finished the race. Seniors Eric Franklin (4th-18:43), Kai McKeever (5th-18:49) & captain Eli Jones (8th-19:20) led the charge with seniors Austin Mueller (16th-19:46) & Hayden Fravel (18th-19:55) completing the scoring for Milton.

The Eagle cross country teams will be a full-strength at their next meet in Whitesburg on Aug. 26 at the always fast/flat course of the Early Bird Invitational hosted by Alexander High School.