By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Entering her fifth season on the Hopedale cross country team, junior Alyssa Spiezio is not only looking to improve upon her time, but is also hoping to take that next step and be a team leader for the Blue Raiders.

 As she gets ready to enter the season, the junior has a best 5k time of 21:30 but would like to get that time under 21 minutes this year and then strive to bring it under 20 minutes before she graduates.

“To improve you’ve got to be determined; everyone has bad days, but you just need to work harder to eliminate those days,” Spiezio said. “I get upset myself with a bad performance because I had worked so hard to be the beast that I can be, but after that race I just put it behind me and move onto the next.”

Spiezio began running in the seventh grade because of her older brother Andrew, who is two years her elder. Andrew was running cross country so the younger sibling assumed that the sport would be something that she’d try; she did and fell in love with it instantly and over the past four years has seen an improvement each year.

“It’s a great sport that helps me with my anxiety,” she said. “Running allows me to clear my mind and give me a relaxing feeling.”

After joining the Hopedale Junior High School team, it took her about half the season before she was elevated to the varsity squad. Although very happy about being able to make the jump, she had a lot of reestablishing of herself to do on the varsity level. 

“I was super happy to move up, but I soon found out that the junior high races were definitely shorter than the 5K you ran or the varsity,” the junior said. “It was very intimidating at first, but I eventually figured things out.”

After spending part of her first season running with the varsity team, Spiezio knew that she wanted to stay with the varsity team while learning so she knew that she couldn’t take cross country lightheartedly.

“In seventh grade I knew that I wanted to pursue running in college, so I figured I better take things seriously,” she said. “And by the time that I got to my freshman year my mentality was that I was now competing with girls my own age who were much better runners, so I needed to step it up.”

As she enters her junior campaign, she know that this is the year that college coaches will be looking at runners to take part in their programs. Although she has not picked a college as of yet, she has had a few colleges approach her to visit the school and meet the team. 

“Having them reach out is definitely a confidence booster,” Spiezio said.

The hopeful junior has already secured a couple of victories on the dual meet courses and has always medaled (top 20) during the larger events. 

“Alyssa is one of our top returning runners coming into this season and after our top two runners graduated, she is set to take the top spot,” Hopedale girls cross country coach Tim Maguire said. “She was still a relatively young runner last year, but she stepped it up as a leader. She is a steady runner, and I am looking for her to take on a significant role for us this year.”

As the fall season is creeping closer, Spiezio has had to make a lot of sacrifices to get better while taking the reins of the team.

“I know that I had to get better to ensure that the team has a good season,” she said. “I’m up at 7:00 AM 6 days a week to run and I am also leading captains’ practices to get the other girls ready.”

In addition to running cross country for the Blue Raiders, the incoming junior has also participated in running the distance events (mile and 2-mile) for both the indoor and outdoor track teams. Although the distances in track are shorter than the cross-country season Spiezio finds running cross country to her benefit.

“I find that track is harder because you are doing the same laps over and over again,” Spiezio said. “Cross country is much more peaceful as you run the trails through the woods while clearing your head of any mental issues.”

With the season a few weeks away, Spiezio is hoping that all her training has gotten her ready for the season at hand to not only improve her team, but also help her to get noticed by a college who can use her talents on the courses as well as the track.