by Gloria Li
Boys’ cross country, 9-2, is determined to place well at the State Meet, according to senior Justin Keefe, a captain with senior David Buzby.
“We also want to qualify in order to attend the New England Regional Meet,” Keefe said.
According to Keefe, last year, only one athlete from boys’ cross country qualified for that competition, Dan Ranti ’11, who was also a captain.
Keefe said he hopes that this year, more members will qualify, and he hopes that they will place well.
According to Buzby, “The team is a closely knit group, like a family.
“All members on the team have fun together before the races and get to business during each of our races. They each put in their all, performing well,” he added.
According to coach Blackburn, the Tigers have a tight collection of members.
He also noted that they have a deep selection of strong runners who will provide a competitive edge in the postseason.
The Tigers will race at Norwood tomorrow as as part of the Bay State Conference Meet.
Keefe said, “Norwood has never been very good—we usually destroy them. I’ve never seen them do too well against us since I’ve been here.”
Keefe said he believes that, “the Tigers will get their confidence boost” from the MTSCA State Coaches Invitational Meet, Saturday, Nov. 5.
He said he does not expect the team to place extremely high but that the Tigers will perform well in the meet.
Buzby said that the team is expecting to perform its best during the postseason.
According to Buzby, “We’re also hoping that we’ll be able to keep up a good record despite having lost to Walpole and Brookline.”
The team’s loss to Brookline, Wednesday, according to Keefe, was an acceptable way to end the season.
“They are the state champions, so going into the meet, we were focused on trying our best and performing well, but we didn’t neccessarily expect to win,” he said.