Best boarding schools in the northeast for cross country?
Thanks!
Check out the D1 championship results for the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council race this fall. You can toggle the results for boys and girls. Results | Granite State Race Services
2 Likes
Thank you so much! Super helpful.
1 Like
Generally, Exeter, Loomis and Hotchkiss are strong teams each year. That said, most NE cross country programs have good supportive coaches and a particularly strong runner will be successful at any of them. So, better to look at other factors when deciding on a NE BS, and know that basically all of them will support cross country interests.
2 Likes
I believe the Hotchkiss XC team has had a very successful year this past season. You should definitely check out Hotchkiss.
2 Likes
The nice thing about XC is you don’t need to be on a “great”, as in deep, team to succeed. If you really like the coach(es), and your teammates, it can be a mid-level, or good, or great team, and it won’t hold you back from your individual time success.
IMO - NMH, DA and Taft are definitely worth a look as well.
4 Likes
If you’ve attended a Founder’s League or NEPSAC meet, you know there are strong harriers at all of the schools mentioned on the thread so far (and quite a few that haven’t come up yet).
2 Likes
George has a couple of kids who are currently top NESCAC xc runners.
1 Like
Thanks very much to everyone for your very helpful responses!
1 Like
i dont know about boarding schools and XC. but - i do know that when my kiddo ran, a nearby school was so deep and had such talent, that the boys running junior varsity would have been on varsity at so many other schools.
they could never put Varsity XC on their resumes even though they were awesome.
so i agree completely with what ultimatecroix said above. you dont have to be a good team. Just be good yourself!
2 Likes
hi there, we are looking too for xc, so i am right there with you. here is what i have been doing to make a list. i check out the scores from the championships d1-d3 from november which someone already gave you the link to, and how my daughter would have placed for time on the team based on her championships time this season. then i check out the school page, see the actual numbers foe how many kids on the team, and read the coaches bios. i also look at how many coaches there are, i want enough so that my child can get questions asked etc.
completely agree with another poster that if your kid likes the coach, then anything is possible since he/she can go as far as they want just qualifying on time and without a while team needing to qualify. keep me posted on how your search goes, we are just starting out and planning to apply jan 2023, but so far it is pretty daunting!
1 Like
Do you mind me asking which boarding schools you identified as possibilities? I, too, am looking for a boarding school in the NE that has a “good” XC team (track as well). My daughter is currently a sophomore and a three season runner. We will be applying in January of 2022 for her junior/senior years.
I know you were asking someone else, but I wanted to say that our student is also a XC runner and applying to boarding schools for 9th grade next fall. Her search has centered mostly on what schools she likes and feels comfortable with that also have XC. The rest of the experience was most important. For example, her dad attended PEA and was on the varsity XC team and they are a perennial powerhouse, but she had zero interest in PEA due to the size of the school. So she didn’t even visit.
Her list is as follows (but another person’s could be completely different based on the factors important to their student-athlete):
Proctor
Miss Porter’s
Pomfret
Emma Willard
Suffield Academy
Millbrook (does not have a track on campus, so probably a nonstarter for you, but they have a female XC runner that places first or second in every meet, including the championships, so there is a strong program. She also won the NEPSTA championship in track for the 1500, so they have a track team, but just not a home track. She was actually our tour guide and she was very complimentary about the program and coaches.)