By, Mikayla C. ’19

The 2018 fall sports season was filled with wins for the Winsor teams, including the cross country team’s second-place finish at the NEPSTA Championship.

Similar to previous years, the cross country team had a successful season. The team took home their fourth consecutive EIL Championship title—the program’s 15th in its history. In the past, following the EIL championship, Winsor has competed at NEPSTAs in the DII division. However, unlike previous years, the team was moved to the DI championship based on the team’s prior success. While this promotion is a testament to the team’s talent, the cross country team was furious. In fact, letters were written protesting the advancement. They had expected to win the DII championship and thought they would get smoked if they were to be placed in the DI tournament. However, despite moving up a division, Winsor placed even better this year than they ever had in the DII tournament.

Co-captain Annie K. ’19 describes the moment in finding out that they had placed second as “surreal.” According to co-captain Clare Q. ’19, most of the team had thought ranking fourth “was a reasonable, achievable goal on a great day given the improvement our team had over the course of the season.” However, team after team after team was called, none of which were Winsor. Annie described the feeling when the team that Winsor expected to win placed third as a “jaw-dropping moment across the whole team.” At this point, they knew they had placed second. When Annie, along with fellow captains Clare and Chloe D. ’19, walked to the stage to receive their awards, the announcer shook Annie’s hand and said, “Hey, welcome to DI.”

Now, what contributed to the impressive placement at the DI championship? Annie remarks that in addition to Winsor record-breaker Meg M. ’24, there has been “a lot more emotional support this year between grades and between Upper and Lower School than there ever has been in years prior.” Clare added that “the ability groups that people ran in during workouts became tightly compressed packs during races, each member pushing one another to do their best, achieve the goals they had set, and move forward in the race together.” Annie elaborated by saying that barriers that had disconnected grades in past years “didn’t exist as much this year, and as such, it led [to] a more bonded team, and that was conducive to [their] success.” I couldn’t agree more. I’ve noticed that the overall atmosphere on Upper School sports teams thus far has been greatly improved since years past and contributed tremendously to our successes, such as the field hockey championship win and the crew team’s eighth place finish at Head of the Charles, which had not been accomplished since 2012.

Congratulations again to the cross country team on their incredible success this year. We hope to hear that Winsor has won NEPSTAs next year!