Milton Track and Field Qualifies Most Ever for Sectionals

By Andy Carr

The Milton High School track & field teams qualified their most athletes ever to the GHSA sectional meet as the boy’s team finished as region runner-up at the Region 5-AAAAAA championship meet at Woodstock.

BOYS

Milton led after the first day of the meet over Roswell and 7 other schools as Eagle athletes went on to capture 3 region titles and complete a runner-up team finish (2nd-97.75 pts) as Roswell (1st-137 pts) came back on the 2nd day of the meet & captured the region team title.

Region titles came from senior Quin Lyles-Woods in the discus (1st-154’11”), senior Jack Bluth in the 1600m (1st-4:26.49) and the 4x800m relay (1st-8:16.27). The 4x800m relay team consisted of seniors Jacques Du Plessis & Clay Marshall and sophomores Michael Malkowski & Ryan Beitzel which ran the 6th best time in school history. Milton’s sectional meet qualifiers also included Cade McAdams in the high jump (2nd-6’2”), the 4th best ever jump in school history, Bluth again in the 3200m (2nd-9:36.60), the 4th best in school history and senior John Fravel in the 800m (2nd-1:56.18), the 3rd best in school history. 3rd place efforts that qualified for sectionals included senior Justin Taylor in the 110m Hurdles (3rd-15.25), the 3rd best in school history & also in the long jump (4th-21’6.5”), Lyles-Woods in the shot put (3rd-47’11”), the 4th best in school history), junior Michael McCarthy, also in the 800m (3rd-1:57.61), senior Matt McGorrey in the 1600m (3rd-4:28.15), sophomore Sam Bowers in the 3200m (3rd-9:37.82), the 5th best in school history & the 4x400m relay team of Taylor, Fravel, McCarthy & senior Porter Dobbins (3rd-3:27.35), the 6th best in school history. Dobbins also qualified in the 400m (4th-50.62), the 5th best in school history, to complete the sectionals roster. Also of note is that Justin Taylor broke the school record in the 300m Hurdles prelim going 39.35 & that mark broke the old record that had stood since 2007. The boys 4x800m “B” team also was 3rd (8:33.66) and that team included juniors Jake Vernon, Valera Stettner, Joey Brovont & sophomore Paul Rose.

GIRLS

Senior Riley Burr continued her fine season with 2 region titles (800m-2:13.52, 1600m-(5:05.67) to lead the Lady Eagles to a 5th place finish (53 pts) out of 9 schools. Also earning a region victory was the 4x800m (1st-10:27.69) of seniors Charlotte Matt & Victoria Wagner, junior Hayden Smith & freshman Peyton Stanley). Other sectionals qualifiers included junior Marie Repasy in the 3200m (2nd-11:37.25) , the 5th best in school history, senior Amina Ali in the 400m (4th-1:01.48), the 4th best in school history, sophomore Sophie Moore in the 300m Hurdles (4th-49.96), the 8th best in school history & sophomore Ryleigh Harris in the triple jump (3rd-33’6.5”), the 2nd best jump in school history & the 4x400m relay of Burr, sophomore Annie Gallagher, Ali & junior China Cordier (4th-4:06.48), also the 2nd best ever in school history, missing the record by 69/100ths of a second.

The GHSA sectional meet will be held Saturday, April 30th at Roswell HS where the top-8 in each event qualify for the GHSA State track & field championships to be held in Albany, GA May 5-7.