An experience-loaded roster with girls who have had some success at the varsity level should help pave the way for the Oakville High School girls’ cross-country team to enjoy some success in 2016.

Tigers’ head coach Drew Moore told the Call he was excited about this year’s squad and has high expectations for the team.

“This is a great group of girls. They are all fun to be around and all are very good students as well as runners. Expectations for us are to definitely make it out of districts as a team,” he said.

The experienced runners from last season and the addition of a new freshman leaves only one pair of shoes to fill to round out the team’s top six.

“We have a lot of experience coming back. We only lost one varsity runner from last year,” Moore said. “Our top four runners are returning, including Magalie Thauvette, Emily Bayer, Lexie Huether and Emma Mueller.

“Halle Ezell is a freshman, but has been very impressive early on and will definitely have a chance to be a big contributor on the varsity team.”

Internal competition and team chemistry have been beneficial during the preseason, according to Moore.

“I like how the girls are challenging and competing with each other to get better. It’s like they feed of each other to keep going while they are running,” he said.

Oakville did not reach its full potential last season, according to Moore.

“Last year we were kind of hit by the injury bug with Lexie Huether and Emily Bayer getting hurt toward the end of the season, so that hurt us,” he said. “But we did get two girls to sectionals and that was Magalie Thauvette and Emma Mueller.”

The goals for the 2016 Tigers are success and, more importantly, fun.

“I want to get our team out of districts to sectionals and hopefully get one or two of our girls to state. As a coach, I am big on players having fun while they are working so hard to get better, so at the end of the year I hope everyone on the team can say they had a good time on our team,” Moore said.