Oakville Has Pair of Champions in Season Opening Cross Country Meet

The 2011 season started with a bang and a lot of sweat for the Oakville boys and girls cross country teams.

The Tigers had the individual champions for both the boys and girls at the Webster Tune-Up Wednesday. The event was shortened from a 5K to 3K because of the 100-degree plus weather.

Jake Bast won the boys event while Melissa Brown placed first in the girls race.

Bast hopes to lead the Tiger boys back to the post-season this fall. Bast, who is a two-time all-state runner, was on the Tiger team that made it to state when he was a freshman and to sectionals in his sophomore year.

"The boys were competitive in just about every meet last year," said Mike Bishop, who is co-coach for the program along with Bill Zimmerman. "It was a disappointing ending though. We had two of our five runners banged up in districts and missed out on advancing to sectionals by just four points."

Oakville hopes to have a longer post-season in 2011.

"I feel we have a pretty solid team and the people we have to beat are very strong as well," Bishop said.

Oakville has a pair of front-runner types in Bast and sophomore Elvir Sarajlic.

The depth is also good with the return of four-year runners Aaron Wood and Brian Whaley along with juniors Nick Reed and Nick Popielewski.

"We want to be competitive wherever we go and do well in the post-season," Bishop said. "We certainly want to get out of districts and see how we can do in a loaded sectional."

Brown was the best of a very young group of Oakville girl runners last fall.

She made it to the state meet as a freshman and followed that up with an outstanding track season. Brown got off to a great start this fall with her win Wednesday.

Senior Megan Berwin provides the Tiger girls with a solid one-two punch. Berwin had an outstanding year in cross country as a sophomore but did not run last year.

Senior Rachel Siverly, a four-year runner, and sophomore Lexi Pommer are other top Oakville girl runners.

"We still have a young team overall but they are no longer novices," Bishop said. "I think with the year of experience under our belt that we should compete well in all of our meets."