by Blake Krantz
Boys’ cross country, 7-4, “really came together as a team” this season, according to senior Alex Montague, a captain with senior Siddharth Nizamuddin.
The Tigers’ record was roughly the same as last year’s, a somewhat disappointing result for the team. “We were hoping to improve more since last year,” Montague said, adding that the Tigers “were just unfortunate to be held back by injuries” throughout the fall.
Despite these setbacks, Nizamuddin praised the way in which the team “pulled it together” in the latter portion of this season, adding that “we gave it our best.”
Coach Jim Blackburn reiterated a similar point about injuries preventing the team from finishing with a superior record, while also expressing the fact that future seasons may have a brighter outlook.
“We have had too many injuries which have kept us from getting better. It’s about the talent we have, and the next few years will be much stronger since we have so many outstanding freshmen and sophomores,” Blackburn explained.  
One of these sophomores is Andrew Mah, who Blackburn stated is “having a great season” individually. Mah will look to advance in the state meets, hopefully qualifying for All-States Nov. 21 individually.
Montague said, on potential areas of improvement for the team, that, “if the season started tomorrow, I’d emphasize consistency,” which may have helped the Tigers’ chances at qualifying for States this season.  
As for the positive aspects of the year, Montague looked to the Tigers’ meet against Brookline as a particularly uplifting performance.
“We ran a great race against Brookline as a serious underdog, and didn’t get the win but were able to give them a scare,” he said.
Montague also maintained an optimistic outlook for the final weeks, explaining that, “in the remainder of the season we really need every single guy to step up and push each other. We have the league championship coming up, and we really want to beat some of the teams that we lost to during the regular season.”
The team will next compete in the Bay State Conference Meet Saturday and the Divisional meet Nov. 14, although after those two meets, the “competition for making states as a team is very high, so it’s unlikely to happen,” according to Montague, leaving qualifying for states as the Tigers’ far-fetched objective in the coming weeks.