Eagles Outrace Gladiators

September 12, 2020

By Andy Carr

The Milton cross country teams captured all five races in their dual meet with Johns Creek as the Eagles hosted the Gladiators in their season opening meet that had been delayed by the COVID-19 restrictions.

Varsity Girls

The Lady Eagles used a strong push in the 2nd-half of the race to come from behind to just barely edge the Lady Gladiators. Milton (1st-27pts) won by just one point over Johns Creek (2nd-28 pts) to start off the dual meet of races on their home course. Individually, Johns Creek senior Agam Horowitz (1st-21:57) led from start-to-finish to claim the race win followed by senior teammate Allison Swift (2nd-22:31) but it was the running of Milton junior Megan Stechshulte (9th-24:37) who caught Johns Creek senior Alexis Vaka (10th-24:38) coming into the finish as both teams 5th runner battled for that last scoring spot which ended up determining the team title in favor of the Lady Eagles by just a single point! Milton’s top-finisher was freshman Ella Grace Malcom (3rd-22:42) running a 22-second course personal best.

Varsity Boys

Milton (1st-15 pts) easily handled Johns Creek (2nd-51 pts) and recorded a perfect team score for only the 8th time in school history. But it was the front running by the Eagles top-two finishers that made their marks in the history books. Overall race winner, senior Hayden Marshall (1st-17:14) not only ran to a 10-second course personal best, but he improved on his 5th best performance by a Milton runner on the home course but he also moved to the 8th best performer on the course all-time by any high school runner that has competed on the extremely difficult Eagles home layout . Marshall’s performance surpassed both Brendan Sillimann of Woodward Academy & Ben McCoy of Blessed Trinity. Fellow senior and race runner-up Jack Petkash (2nd-17:33) made some history of his own becoming the 8th best Eagle performer on his home course with his 37-second course personal best. Senior Connor Brunson (3rd-18:24), junior Dylan Bowden (4th-18:43) & sophomore Cory Chambers (5th-19:09) made up the scoring for the Eagles.

JV Girls

Milton (1st-15 pts) landed their 9th team perfect score in school history as freshman Calista Cacciatore (1st-25:21) led from the start to get the overall win. Johns Creek trailed (2nd-50 pts). Sophomore Ella Rindt (2nd-25:56), seniors Paige Chambers (3rd-26:07) and Audrey Minton (4th-26:15) & junior Chelsea Pozatek (5th-26:36) were the Lady Eagles team scorers.

JV Boys

Again, Milton (1st-15 pts) produced a perfect team score, the 10th in the school’s history, to easily outpace Johns Creek (2nd-50 pts). In an extremely exciting race for the individual overall victory, Eagle junior Faaris Moiz (1st-20:54) pulled away from a group of nine Milton racers in the last 1000 meters to get the race win. The Eagles took the next nine finishing spots as well with junior Matt Cammack (2nd-21:07), senior Sean Runner (3rd-21:08), freshman Eric Rasmituth (4th-21:12) & sophomore Jack Rea (5th-21:27) leading the group of scorers.

Open Boys

Another strong team performance brought Milton (1st-23 pts) another victory over Johns Creek (2nd-36 pts) to conclude the meet. Johns Creek junior Hayden Parks (1st-22:17) got the overall race win as the effort by the Eagles was led by junior Luke Ortwein (2nd-22:37), senior Courtland Clark (3rd-22:58) & junior Axel Zivic (4th-23:49).