With one of the youngest teams in recent history, the 2007 varsity cross-country team failed at their goal of reaching the state meet as a team. However, with their youth, they laid the foundation for upcoming seasons as they improved throughout this one.
The team was led by two seniors, Alan Blount and Josh Vieira. Both had been with the program for at least three years and represented it well at practice and at meets. Their work ethic and attitude were outstanding throughout as they improved each year and showed the underclassman how to prepare and conduct themselves.
The talented underclassmen followed the leadership of the two veteran seniors and even began developing some of their own leadership skills. This group included juniors Matt Grisham, Thomas Ivy, and John Riggins; sophomores Bobby Bell, Alexander Kaltenborn, Matthew Murphy, and Reid Sanders; and freshman Shea Gabrielleschi. These student-athletes performed well at practice and at the meets.
The Owls opened their race schedule in mid-September with a league meet at Shelby Farms. Participating against some of the deepest competition in the league in many years, MUS ran near the front, finishing third.
In addition to one other league meet later in the season, the Owls also participated in several large invitational races.
MUS finished sixth in the Frank Horton Invitational in late September as Vieira took fifth in a very deep field. Then in October, the Owls competed in the Twilight Invitational at Mike Rose, claiming sixteenth out of thirty-four teams. Grisham was the Owls’ best finisher in this race, taking the fifty-second position out of 280 runners. And then the team participated in the Shelby County Championships at Shelby Farms, finishing fifth out of nineteen schools. Grisham once again was the Owls’ best finisher.
After these five meets, MUS was set for the postseason Region Championships, held October 25 at Shelby Farms. With TSSAA realignment, the Owls would have to finish in the top-three to qualify for the state meet. MUS ran very well and finished tied for third as a team; unfortunately, they lost in a tiebreaker to ECS and therefore did not qualify as a team.
But for two Owl runners, Grisham and Vieira, the 2007 season did not end there as they qualified individually for state as both finished in the top-ten at region. So on November 2, Coach Tyler accompanied them to Nashville and the Division II AA State Meet, held at Percy Warner State Park.
And both runners did very well. Grisham ran a personal best 17:10.10 to medal and claim eighth overall, and Vieira ran 17:31.98 on the three-mile course to take seventeenth overall. These two Owls represented the program well with their performance.
Though the team did not participate at state, Coach Tyler remains upbeat and looks forward to the future.
“From the middle of August through the state meet, our kids did a good job of running for their teammates and committing to each other. If the returning runners continue to do that in the off-season and into the summer, we have a chance to be competitive again.”
