Mehlville’s girls cross country coach Stephanie Guliano has been waiting all summer for the season to begin.

“Coaching cross country is literally my favorite part of my day,” Guliano said. “We have a real young team with just one senior, so there’s a lot of opportunity within our team.”

Senior Ajla Otajagic saw action at last year’s Missouri Class 5, District 1 championships and is the lone senior on this year’s team.

“Ajla’s been on the team for the past four years and she’s a consistent runner that’s improved every year,” Guliano said. “It’s been great to see her progress as a runner, but also as a student as well.”

Junior Ava Reifschneider also competed at last year’s district championships and has come into the cross country season in solid shape.

“Ava’s a strong runner that wants to do well,” Guliano said. “She played basketball most of the summer, so she’s gotten back into the swing of things right away.”

Sophomore Marissa Mujic also ran at districts last year as a freshman and has shown a lot of promise over the course of the last few weeks.

“I feel as if she’ll be an outstanding leader on this year’s team,” Guliano said. “She came on very strong at the end of her freshman season so I’m excited to see how she does this year.”

Juniors Tiana Phan, Kandace Sargent and Mariah Everhart are all showing consistent improvement since their freshman season.

“Tiana’s an awesome runner that puts in 100% in every run,” Guliano said. “Kandace has made great improvements since her freshman year and she’s a great leader that provides a lot of positive team support for this group of girls. Mariah also runs track and is a really strong runner and this is her second year on the team.”