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 87th 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 45th 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. Coe-Brown has the longest active boy’s streak at 10. On the girls side, the most recent longest streak was snapped this year as Coe-Brown reached 13 consecutive years. Those are some impressive streaks but consider this: The Manchester Central girls once made New Englands 29 years in a row (1984-2012). This is a record which may never be broken (yep we said it!)!!!
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 | 34 | Manchester Central | 30 | |
| Londonderry | 26 | Pinkerton | 30 | |
| Manchester Central | 19 | Hanover | 20 | |
| Concord | 19 | Concord | 19 | |
| Bishop Guertin | 13 | Oyster River | 16 | |
| Oyster River | 15 | Bishop Guertin | 15 | |
| Coe-Brown | 12 | Londonderry | 14 | |
| Keene | 13 | Keene | 13 | |
| Nashua (pre-split) | 11 | Coe-Brown | 12 | |
| Hanover | 9 | Nashua (pre-split) | 11 | |
| Salem | 7 | Souhegan | 9 | |
| Con-Val | 6 | Kennett | 7 | |
| Merrimack | 6 | Dover | 7 | |
| Manchester Memorial | 5 | Exeter | 5 | |
| Stevens | 5 | Manchester West | 4 | |
| Nashua North | 5 | Alvirne | 3 | |
| Timberlane | 4 | Bedford | 3 | |
| Nashua South | 4 | Winnacunnet | 3 | |
| Souhegan | 4 | Belmont | 2 | |
| Winnacunnet | 3 | Kingswood | 2 | |
| Alvirne | 2 | Manchester Memorial | 2 | |
| Kennett | 2 | Hopkinton | 2 | |
| Laconia | 2 | Merrimack | 2 | |
| Mascenic | 2 | Con-Val | 2 | |
| Pelham | 2 | Hollis-Brookline | 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 | |||
| Lebanon | 1 | |||
| Merrimack Valley | 1 | |||
| Monadnock | 1 | |||
| Newfound | 1 | |||
| Portsmouth | 1 | |||
| Windham | 1 |
