Milford High School Cross Country

Patrick Helmick placed third with a strong 17:55, helping to pace the varsity boys to a fifth-place finish, good enough for team shirts. Alexis Groce, Mollis Bliss and Sara Kolobielski scored medals to lead the girls.

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Cartwright, a four-year veteran, put together his fastest race of his career Wednesday at Winterplace Park with a strong 19:27. He followed that up with his best time at the hills of Brandywine Creek, busting out a 22:14 which was nearly a minute faster than his previous best.

 In her rookie season, Jackson has quickly made a scoring impact moving into the varsity seven or better in each of her races. At the Tidwater Classic Wednesday, her 22:57 moved her into the Bloom Top 10 fastest seniors and helped her squad to a third-place trophy.

Alexis Groce (20:40) and Molly Bliss (20:41) scored top 15 medals and also moved higher on the MHS All-time Fastest 5K list to lead the girls to a 3rd-place trophy at the Tidewater Classic in Salisbury, Md., Wednesday. Meanwhile, Patrick Helmick placed fourth overall with a career-best 16:39 to help the boys finish 4th out 27 teams.

Carl Richardson and Erik Gibbs ran career times in the 17s to move up higher on the MHS All-time Fastest 5K list as well. Jordan Lane and Taiwan Savage also scored career times to round out the top 5 boys scorers, while Sara Kolobielski, Jessica Griffith and Kacie Jackson busted out bests to lead the girls' scoring pack.

 In all, 31 Bucs scored career-best times and seven others added season-bests.

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 In her rookie season, Richardson has worked extremely hard in practice during preseason and saw an exciting drop in time on Friday as she led the JV with a strong 26:24, topping her previous season-best by nearly a minutes. She appears poised to reach the varsity.

In his second season on varsity, Carl has seen a dramatic improvement, running over a minute faster than last season’s best. He ran under 18 for the second time in ‘09 on Friday to place 8th in the Middletown Inv. and helped the boys to victories Wednesday

Patrick Helmick ran a 17:08 to come one step from winning the individual title at the Middletown Invitational at Lums Pond on Friday as the boys tied Concord with 78 points, but lost on the 6th-man tie-breaker.

Erik Gibbs and Carl Richardson each broke 18 minutes to earn Top 10 medals, while Taiwan Savage and Mike Doughty rounded on the boys scoring 5. Nick Albert, who ran a career-best 19:54, and Clarence Cartwright rounded out the boys varsity.

For the girls, Alexis Groce scored the 8th Fastest MHS 5K time with a 21:23 to lead the way, while Molly Bliss finished with a 21:41. Kacie Jackson ran a career-best 23:19 before Jessica Griffith, Abby Mitchell, Shai Sefiane and Alexis Guzman rounded out the top 7 with great times.

 Jordan Lane, who had been sick during the week, won the junior varsity race with a 19 flat, while Steve Eshelman and Mike Johnson scored Top 15 medals. Oddly enough, the JV boys tied for second with Concord as well, but beat them on a 6th-man tiebreaker.

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