Milton GA quartet sticking together for college

By Brian Towey for DyeStat

With a slew of talented, returning runners and the January addition of transfer Nicholas Yanek, Milton GA coach Bill Marra knew he had a special team.

Backed by seniors Sam Bowers, Michael Malkowski, Dru Milton, Ryan Beitzell and Yanek, Milton won the school’s first state boys cross country championship in 90-plus years. The team was ranked No. 11 by DyeStat as late as Nov. 23 and followed its state victory with a fifth-place finish at NXR Southeast, with Bowers and and Yanek advancing individually to NXN, where they finished 35th and 44th, respectively.

What came next was equally remarkable. Independently, the team’s seniors scoured college options. And despite sharing nary a word about recruiting, Yanek, Bowers, Malkowski and Milton all chose the University of Georgia.

“We train together all the time,” Malkowski said. “Our varsity stays together in every workout, every easy run.

“One of the things we never talked about was recruiting. It never came up. We see ourselves as a family and our younger runners wouldn’t be able to share in it.”

It started on the weekend of Sept. 17, when Bowers, Yanek, and Malkowski all took an official visit together to the in-state school 50 miles to the east.

“It was a lot better going with my teammates,” Yanek said. “We got a chance to see what it would be like if we were there together.”

Then the dominoes fell. Yanek picked first, choosing the program Oct. 7 over Georgia Tech, West Point and Alabama, where his sister, McKenzie, is an All-SEC cross country runner. Then followed Bowers and Malkowski, whose choices came almost simultaneously.

“I’ve always been interested in the school, being a high school athlete from Georgia,” Malkowski said. “There’s a certain pull and attraction.”

But the real surprise was Dru Milton. The 66th-place finisher at the Georgia Class 7A final in 2016, he climbed to eighth Nov. 3 at this year’s state championship. Shortly afterward, the University of Georgia offered a scholarship.

“As soon as the offer came, I hopped on it,” he said.

What is the lure of the program? While Georgia’s well-established reputation in the field and multi-events persists, save for some individuals, the distance-running program is waiting to take off.

“The UGA team this year lost a lot of seniors, so it’s kind of a in a rebuilding stage,” Dru Milton said. “The coaching staff focused primarily on in-state talent.”

The distance program also adds Tyler Fox of nearby Lambert High in Suwanee, the fifth-place finisher at the 7A state cross country final.

“The competition in Georgia, it’s gotten more interesting this year,” Malkowski said. “In the Southeast, obviously it’s one of the tougher regions for cross country.”

Yanek, who finished 16th last year at NXR Heartland competing for Pleasant Valley of Bettendorf, Iowa, learned exactly how competitive the Southeast Region was this season.

“Some of the best kids in the country were in the Southeast, with Brodey Hasty and Loudoun Valley,” Yanek said. “The Midwest seems harder. I used to think that (but not anymore).”

For Marra, a coach with Delaware roots, the 2017 cross country season was touched by serendipity. With any luck he’ll see this group through at the state’s flagship university, their collective mark on Georgia high school running secure.

“We call (the University of Georgia) Milton North,” Marra said. “Because there are so many runners from our team there.”