With the 2026 Season Previews being posted and races not that far off, NHCC is getting excited for this upcoming season! It is always fun to assess the accuracy of our predictions given all the variables which contribute to a high school cross country season! So, just how good are we here at NHCC with predicting Divisional Championships and MOC outcomes? Let’s find out! Below are the summaries of what we predicted in contrast with the real results of last year’s 2025 XC season. Anyone can make predictions but we here at NHCC demand accountability from…ourselves!
Disclaimer: Many different people contribute to these predictions over the course of a given season, so is this a perfectly scientific breakdown of accuracy? Nope, it’s just for fun and we are happy to expose our inaccuracies (and brag about our successes too). Accurately predicting team success (especially before we’ve had any meets!) is incredibly difficult.
The number of teams in each category reflect the number of teams automatically eligible to advance to the next level of competition.
Division 3 Girls
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Hopkinton | 1) Hopkinton | 1) Hopkinton |
| 2) Newfound | 2) Newfound | 2) Portsmouth Christian Academy |
| 3) Gilford | 3) Pelham | 3) Newfound |
| 4) Newmarket | 4) Gilford | 4) Newmarket |
| 5) Winnisquam | 5) Newmarket | 5) Fall Mountain |
A decent start here with three out of five (60%) correct in the always tricky Seasonal Preview, and we did call the winning team from the jump. Another three out of five (60%) selection hits in the Divisional Preview again predicting the correct winner in Hopkinton and only one spot off for two other teams. Maybe getting back-to-back snubs in the prediction articles fueled PCA to their very impressive 2nd place finish at D3s as they did not get one mention as a top 5 team in either preview. Same thing for Fall Mountain who flew under the radar until it counted most, earning a 5th spot and an automatic bid to MOCs. Congrats to both teams (and a big “yikes” from NHCC) for coming up big in a big spot!
Overall Grade: C+
Division 3 Boys
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Mascoma Valley | 1) Hopkinton | 1) Monadnock |
| 2) Mascenic | 2) Monadnock | 2) Hopkinton |
| 3) Portsmouth Christian Academy | 3) Portsmouth Christian Academy | 3) Portsmouth Christian Academy |
| 4) Hopkinton | 4) Newmarket | 4) Newfound |
| 5) Newmarket | 5) Newfound | 5) Newmarket |
An ok start here with three out of five (60%) correct in the Seasonal Preview but then a very nice five out of five (100%) in the Divisional Preview. Really nice work here with PCA exactly right and the other four slots only a one place transposition!
Grade: A-
Division 2 Girls
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover |
| 2) Oyster River | 2) Oyster River | 2) Oyster River |
| 3) Plymouth | 3) Souhegan | 3) Coe-Brown |
| 4) Souhegan | 4) Plymouth | 4) Hollis-Brookline |
| 5) Hollis-Brookline | 5) Coe-Brown | 5) Souhegan |
Strong start here with four out of five teams (80%) predicted correctly in the Seasonal Preview, calling 1-2 perfectly and only having 4-5 swapped. Another four out of five teams (80%) correct in the Divisional Preview with again 1-2 spot on; however the H-B Cavaliers showed us we should have stuck with our Seasonal Preview call by placing 4th at D2s.
Grade: B+
Division 2 Boys
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover |
| 2) Oyster River | 2) Coe-Brown | 2) Coe-Brown |
| 3) Coe-Brown | 3) Oyster River | 3) Oyster River |
| 4) Souhegan | 4) Souhegan | 4) Souhegan |
| 5) Plymouth | 5) Bow | 5) Hollis-Brookline |
Really nice work here with four out of five (80%) correct in the Seasonal Preview; #1 and #4 spot-on with 2-3 transposed. The Divisional Preview also had four out of five (80%) with places 1-4 exactly right which means we are feeling good here! However, we can’t pat ourselves on the back too much; it’s the H-B boys turn to show us we still have flaws in our prediction game.
Grade: A
Division 1 Girls
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Exeter | 1) Exeter | 1) Pinkerton |
| 2) Pinkerton | 2) Pinkerton | 2) Exeter |
| 3) Bedford | 3) Bedford | 3) Bedford |
| 4) Bishop Guertin | 4) Bishop Guertin | 4) Bishop Guertin |
| 5) Londonderry | 5) Concord | 5) Concord |
This is by far our best work so far. In the Seasonal Preview we had four out of five (80%) accurately predicted. 1-2 swapped and 3-4 were “exactos”. In the Divisional Preview we improved by getting a stunning five out of five (100%) correct with 1-2 swapped and 3-4-5 “exactos”!
Grade: A+
Division 1 Boys
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | Divisional Championship Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Pinkerton | 1) Pinkerton | 1) Pinkerton |
| 2) Londonderry | 2) Londonderry | 2) Keene |
| 3) Keene | 3) Keene | 3) Londonderry |
| 4) Bishop Guertin | 4) Bishop Guertin | 4) Nashua North |
| 5) Salem | 5) Nashua North | 5) Nashua South |
Three out of five (60%) correctly predicted in the Seasonal Preview with #1 exact and 2-3 transposed. A nice improvement calling four out of five (80%) correctly in the Divisional Preview as #1 was spot-on again with 2-3 swapped, and adding in North to the D1 Preview proved a smart move. Now could we have just seen the rise of Nashua South to a top 5 slot ahead of time? As NH XC guru Larry Martin often says, “this is why we run the races!”.
Grade: B+
MOC Girls
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | MOC Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover | 1) Hanover |
| 2) Oyster River | 2) Pinkerton | 2) Oyster River |
| 3) Exeter | 3) Exeter | 3) Exeter |
| 4) Pinkerton | 4) Oyster River | 4) Pinkerton |
| 5) Hopkinton | 5) Bedford | 5) Bedford |
| 6) Bedford | 6) Hopkinton | 6) Hopkinton |
Very tough to predict category here early on, but this is probably our best predictive outing ever here at NHCC with six out of six predicted correctly (100%) in the Seasonal Preview and 1-2-3-4 exactly correct! Pair that with 5-6 merely swapped and this some tremendous work if we do say so ourselves. In the MOC preview article we couldn’t quite top that despite again calling six out of six (100%) teams accurately. We “only” called #1, #3, #5 and #6 perfectly with 2-4 transposed.
Grade: A++
MOC Boys
| Seasonal Preview Predictions | MOC Predictions | Actual Results |
| 1) Pinkerton | 1) Pinkerton | 1) Pinkerton |
| 2) Hanover | 2) Hanover | 2) Hanover |
| 3) Keene | 3) Coe-Brown | 3) Coe-Brown |
| 4) Londonderry | 4) Keene | 4) Keene |
| 5) Bishop Guertin | 5) Londonderry | 5) Oyster River |
| 6) Oyster River | 6) Oyster River | 6) Londonderry |
A quite strong five out of six (83%) correctly predicted teams from the Seasonal Preview which included 1-2 called exactly and two other teams only one or two spots off the eventual results.
Can’t get much better than that, right? Wrong. The MOC Prediction article nailed six out of six (100%) correctly predicted teams and perfect placements with the #1, #2, #3, #4 teams and a 5-6 spot transposition which qualifies this as a pretty darn good outing.!
Grade: A+
Thanks for reading, and please understand that our grading system may have been inflated to soothe our delicate egos.
Good luck and good health this season; as always please try your best to prove as many of our predictions wrong as possible!
-NHCC
