In baseball, they say that anything is possible on Opening Day. It is the same, it appears, for this year’s War Eagle cross country teams.

In speaking with Oak Ridge High School cross country coach Dennis Muehlstein, he indicated that this should be the best boys team Oak Ridge has seen at least in the last decade. Coach Muehlstein elaborated, “ On paper it is already the fastest top to bottom that I have had in my career here at Oak Ridge. All that being said, we will definitely have to be at our best in October to have any kind of chance in this new Super District.” He continued, “We could be really, really good and still be 4th or 5th”.

The Varsity will start off with at least five returning lettermen, senior Pedro Vasquez, and juniors Andrew Smith, Tony Ballesteros, Walker Burgess, and Chris Steinley. The two others will be sophomore Zach Wooldridge and senior Jon Bell.

Andrew Smith was a regional qualifier in cross country last year and ran a team leading 10:01 – 3200M on the track. Six of the seven have run sub five minute miles and sub 11 minutes for the 3200M on the track.

Coach Muelstein likes how his program looks at all levels, “With this depth on the varsity, it leaves significantly better talent on the JV and freshman teams. I expect to have a few “up and comers” make people take notice once we start racing. That will only make the varsity guys work even harder. I cannot wait to get to racing. It should be an exciting year! “.

Coach Muehlstein is excited about the girls cross country teams as well, and he raves at how great of a job girls’ coach Amanda Dube is doing.  Last count, the girls had 17 runners. We’ll be reporting on the girls team next week.