Junior Kyle O’Brien is one of the star players on the Malden High School Boys Cross Country team. O’Brien started participating in Cross Country during his freshman year and began running as a junior varsity runner, but also ran a two-mile race as varsity.
He started Cross Country due to his friends introducing it to him. During his freshman year, O’Brien struggled for the first few weeks with getting used to the sport after he made it part of his life. However, by his sophomore year, he had already made Cross Country part of his daily lifestyle.
In the last three years of having meets, O’Brien keeps training and pushing himself to not give up. It taught him life lessons like showing up on time, dedication and hard work ethic. He also expressed that the last three years have been the best years of his life.
His goals for this year are to once again make states, to have a personal record of 18:30 for the 5K and to have a good winning record overall as a team. When O’Brien graduates from high school, his plans are to continue running for fun and to stay fit.
Recently, he has improved his personal best for the 3 miles twice in recent meets. He started at 19:03, then he beat that time with a new time of 18:24 and now his new personal best is 18:03.
Boys and Girls Cross Country coach Courtney Invernizzi feels that “[O’Brien] is a great athlete to our team.” Invernizzi also feels that O’Brien “has a great work ethic and he is a good leader for our team and that he is very dedicated to running.” Invernizzi also said that O’Brien goes to all the practices on time and is willing to work hard, and he motivates the kids and that he is willing to step up and help out. Invernizzi stated that “[O’Brien] has great potential to get some Personal Bests this season if [he] continues to focus and keep working on athletic form as well as sticking to the running program and not overdoing it in practice.”
Invernizzi is looking forward to O’Brien finishing up this season with his fellow teammates and achieving some of his own personal goals and looks forward to having him on the team next year as a senior. Invernizzi stated that “these cross country runners are very talented athletes and all work hard, but most importantly, [the team works] together as a team and always [demonstrates] great sportsmanship!”
Juan Buenrostro, a Senior runner on the cross country team feels that O’Brien is a hard worker and that he always tries to do his best. Buenrostro feels that O’Brien “became one of the top 5 because he challenges himself during races by trying to keep up with us.” He also stated that “he’s funny and is a friend to everyone and makes plans with us but when it comes to running he takes things serious.”
Omar Asousy, another player on the team feels that “Kyle has been working hard since day one.” He has a striving hunger to compete and run. Asousy feels that O’Brien is “one of the few I can count on to put 110% day in and day out.” As a teammate O’Brien is funny and energetic and fun to be around with him. Asousy stated “He’s a little kid with a big heart.”
