Positive Results from Pickens

October 9th
Roper Park
Jasper, GA
By Coach Andy Carr

Under the lights and before tropical storm Isaias hit, the Eagle cross country teams travelled up to Jasper, GA for the Annual Pickens & Grinnin’ Invitational meet to take on 20-plus schools and came away with top 3 team finishes in every race of the meet.

Varsity Girls
The top 3 6A ranked Lady Eagles took on region foe Johns Creek (2nd-87 pts) & 7A power West Forsyth (1st-67 pts) and in the process took down 15 schools. Milton (3rd-99 pts) was again paced by the front-running of junior Sadie Katekovich (6th-19:28) and was followed by fellow junior Lucie Blake (11th-19:46). A big race was turned in by junior Kenley Sirras (20th-20:29), just missing her all-time personal best. Senior captain Ava Kane (22nd-20:37) just missed her season’s best and kept the Lady Eagles close to the top 2 teams. Closing out the scoring was the huge personal best by junior Audrey Grose (40th-21:24) improving her best time by 33 seconds! Sophomore Sloane Robers (43rd-21:30) & senior Cara Tenhundfeld (56th-21:51) beat back many teams top 5 scoring runners.

Varsity Boys
Going into this meet, Milton (3rd-118 pts) was predicted to be no better than 5th but excellent up-front running and a solid close group of finishers in the scoring positions elevated the Eagles to a trophy-winning finish! Senior captain Will Chambers (6th-16:23) ran to a season’s best performance and in the process pulled along sophomore Noah Jenkins (11th-16:34) to an all-time personal best. Senior Jace Kasteler (19th-16:56) was next & went under 17 minutes for the first time to record an all-time best. Another solid run by freshman William Brown (32nd-17:14) brought him another all-time best and sophomore William Gilbert (50th-17:47) finalized the scoring for Milton and in the process defeated 15 scoring teams. Contributing to the top 3 team finish were senior captain Tyler Nix (56th-17:51) & senior Logan Bradway (57th-17:52).

JV Girls
The Lady Eagles beat back 12 schools as Milton (2nd-50 pts) fell to only West Forsyth (1st-15 pts). Sophomore Angelika Stauffer (8th-23:21) raced to close to a 2-minute personal best to lead the Lady Eagle runner-up effort. Senior Rachela Weitzel (9th-23:23) followed in a season’s best & was supported by fellow senior Brynn Kelly (11th-23:37) & freshman Mary Cate Case (13th-23:43) in another personal best by the freshman. Junior Sienna Perl (18th-23:56) was next just missing her season & personal best to close out the team score for Milton.

JV Boys
Milton (2nd-82 pts) also ran into the West Forsyth (1st-15 pts) juggernaut but was still able to defeat 14 schools from all over north Georgia to garner runner-up honors. Sophomore Chase VanBelle (8th-18:32) led the Eagles with his medal winning and personal best performance! Fellow sophomore Luc Souza (12th-19:03) was next while recording a personal best performance as freshman Grayson Free (23rd-19:31) did the same & brought along senior Christopher Chen (25th-19:33) & sophomore Philip Jakubecy (32nd-19:46) to close out the scoring in the largest (269 finishers) race of the meet.

Next up for the Milton cross country teams is their annual Intra-Squad Relay on Oct 15th followed by the last regular season meet at the Big Peach Mustang Stampede on Oct 24th in Acworth, GA at Allatoona Creek Park.