The Milton boys indoor track team hopes the road ahead leads it toward repeating as Division III state champions.
However, while the Wildcats know their intended destination, they can only guess what the journey there will look like.
For the last few years, All-State talents Zakai Perkins and Luka Juric have been at the forefront of Milton. With those two now graduated, the Wildcats are in search of a new recipe to create the same success.
“We lost quite a few scorers,” Milton coach George Daly said. “Both Zakai and Luka were top-three in all of their events. That being said, and as unrealistic as it may sound, we think we can come back and do it all again this year.”
There are two ways the Wildcats can make that happen.
They can either hope that those who remain on the team will fill the shoes of Perkins and Juric, and excel in the same events they once did. Alternatively, Milton can allow the upstarts to discover which events they’re best suited for and master them, allowing them to carve out their own legacies, as Perkins and Juric did before.
As far as Daly sees it, a combination of the two might be possible.
In sophomores Jonah Stevens-Roy and Taj Chung, Milton has two of the top hurdlers in the state as far as the class of 2028 goes. Either one could take up Perkins’ mantle. Meanwhile, both Bobby Beato and Miles Fergus have shown potential as distance runners and are ready to take the next step.
If there’s one area where Milton feels secure, it’s in the sprints with Noah Tran, who is considered to be one of the top-five sprinters in the state.
Tran will also feature in the long jump. Last season, he had issues finding the takeoff board and still managed to clear 19 feet with ease. This year, Daly expects him to break 21 feet at some point sooner rather than later.
With a top-heavy roster, the Wildcats may not look like their usual selves early on this season in dual meets while they try to figure out where their strengths truly lie. But once championship season rolls around, they expect to be well-prepared and ready to defend their crown.
“Experience has a lot to do with attitude,” said Daly. “The attitude that they walk into a meeting with–I want them to walk into the meet as though they are champions. Not to be braggers or anything like that, but confident. Confident in themselves and in their training. They just have to use their experience.”
It’s not so much an uncertain path for Milton as it is simply unfamiliar. Either way, the Wildcats know exactly where they want to go.
They just have to figure out how to get their first.
“We’re focused on the championship meets at the end of the season,” Daly said. “We try to put our best foot forward at every meet. But for some of our top-notch people who have the opportunity to score points at the state meet, we don’t want to waste training by trying to score points during a meet in mid-January when we want them to be at their best in the middle of February.”
