New Englands are unique!!! Besides nationals, when else do multiple states gather from a region to decide who has the best cross country or track programs???
This year marks the 84th running of the New England XC Championships. There have been boys championships dating back to the 1930s, but the first women’s race didn’t take place until 1977. This year’s race marks the 42nd New England Championship for girls cross country.
Over the past four decades the meet has grown from 12 teams representing three states (Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire) to 30 teams drawn from five states. Connecticut joined the party in 1986. Maine sent teams at first, then didn’t participate for nearly two decades, then started sending individuals in 1998 and teams in 2005. Hope remains that one of these years, Massachusetts will “adjust” its championships schedule to join the meet, as the Commonwealth does with indoor and outdoor track.
With the parity in NH Cross Country, streaks lengthen and snap every year. Oyster River boys haves the longest active boy’s streak at 9. Next best is Coe-Brown at 6. The Pinkerton girls are going for the 29th time and the sixth year in a row. Coe-Brown girls hold the longest current streak extending their’s to 11 consecutive New England appearances. Those are some
impressive streaks but consider this: The Manchester Central girls once made New Englands 28 years in a row (1984-2012). This is a record which may never be broken (yep we said it!)!!!
Linked here are spreadsheets showing all boys and girls teams with New England appearances over the past 40+ years.
Here are the teams with the most New England appearances over the past 40 years, from 1977 to the present:
| BOYS – NEs | Total | GIRLS – NEs | Total | |
| Pinkerton | 31 | Manchester Central | 30 | |
| Londonderry | 24 | Pinkerton | 29 | |
| Manchester Central | 19 | Hanover | 19 | |
| Concord | 17 | Concord | 18 | |
| Bishop Guertin | 12 | Londonderry | 14 | |
| Oyster River | 14 | Oyster River | 14 | |
| Nashua (pre-split) | 11 | Bishop Guertin | 13 | |
| Keene | 12 | Keene | 12 | |
| Coe-Brown | 9 | Coe-Brown | 12 | |
| Hanover | 8 | Nashua (pre-split) | 11 | |
| Salem | 7 | Souhegan | 9 | |
| Con-Val | 6 | Kennett | 7 | |
| Merrimack | 6 | Dover | 6 | |
| Manchester Memorial | 5 | Exeter | 5 | |
| Stevens | 5 | Manchester West | 4 | |
| Nashua North | 5 | Alvirne | 3 | |
| Timberlane | 4 | Con-Val | 2 | |
| Nashua South | 3 | Bedford | 2 | |
| Souhegan | 3 | Belmont | 2 | |
| Winnacunnet | 3 | Kingswood | 2 | |
| Alvirne | 2 | Manchester Memorial | 2 | |
| Kennett | 2 | Winnacunnet | 2 | |
| Laconia | 2 | Merrimack | 2 | |
| Mascenic | 2 | Hollis-Brookline | 1 | |
| Pelham | 2 | Hopkinton | 1 | |
| Plymouth | 2 | Kearsarge | 1 | |
| Sant Bani | 2 | Merrimack Valley | 1 | |
| White Mountains | 2 | Nashua North | 1 | |
| Bedford | 1 | Newmarket | 1 | |
| Berlin | 1 | Salem | 1 | |
| Bow | 1 | Sanborn | 1 | |
| Exeter | 1 | Spaulding | 1 | |
| Fall Mountain | 1 | |||
| Merrimack Valley | 1 | |||
| Monadnock | 1 | |||
| Newfound | 1 | |||
| Portsmouth | 1 |
Originated by Fergus Cullen
6 Responses
Is it possible that BISHOP BRADY HS is the only New England high school to have both a male and female individual New England champion – John Savoie (1972) and Beth Clarke (1977)?
What about LaSalle? Or Glastonbury? I know DJ Principe and Donn Cabral have won on the boys side. I would think it’s possible for both schools to have had a female winner as well.
Staples has done it as well. Hannha DeBlasi in 2013 and 2014, and Henry Wynne in 2012.
concord boys made it in 2002
Glastonbury has. Donn Cabral in 2007, Lindsay Crevoiserat in 2010.
Union 32 (VT) – Mint Henk (2001) and Tara Chaplin (1996). [Tara Chaplin (Arizona) was NCAA D1 XC Champion in 2001.]