By Blake Krantz
Boys’ cross country competed in the Bay State Conference Championship Saturday, finishing fourth in the varsity race and first in the freshman race, a “very successful showing” for the team, according to senior Alex Montague, a captain with senior Siddharth Nizamuddin.
Montague emphasized that the Tigers “definitely accomplished” their goals for the meet, despite the fact that it was clear the team “wouldn’t be in contention for the league title.” The team scored higher than it was ranked, ahead of teams such as Weymouth, who the team lost to earlier in the season.
Sophomore Andrew Mah, the team’s top runner, finished sixth overall in the varsity race, with Jacob Jampel, Siddharth Nizamuddin, A.J. Arbuckle, and Victor Svedloff rounding out the top five runners for varsity Saturday.
The Tigers’ top five freshman were John Guekguezian, Nick Hoch, Juan Lopez, Liam Scanlon, and Joe Silagi.
Coach Jim Blackburn said these performances accomplished the Tigers’ two main objectives for the meet, even with a somewhat short-handed team.
“We had two of our top five runners out with injuries, so to finish only behind Wellesley, Needham, and Brookline was an accomplishment in the varsity race. Winning the freshman race means the future looks great,” Blackburn said.
The top seven runners who Blackburn and the other coaches choose based on season-long performance will now move on to run in the State Divisional meet Nov. 14.
However, for the majority of the Tigers the last meet of the season will be this Saturday in an invitational in Wrentham, an opportunity for many to “get used to the course,” as Montague explained, in anticipation of the state meet coming up in two weeks.