Big Day for the Chameleons

I was standing right next to the Concord Academy girls XC team at Franklin Park, as the awards ceremony for the EIL championships began. Until that moment, I would have described them as a happy, but low-key bunch.

I was about to have my consciousness raised.

First, the announcer read the names of the top twelve finishers in the boys race, starting with 12th. When the announcer read the name of the 6th-place finisher, CA's Eric Edelstein, the girls gave an unusually raucous cheer that startled me and several of the people near me. When the the announcer read out the name of the 2nd-place finisher, CA's Dylan Awalt-Conley, the girls' approval reached a new and alarming decibel level. And when the winning team was announced and the CA boys went up to accept their gaudy and over-sized trophy as meet champions, my head throbbed with the ear-splitting cheers.

And that was only the beginning. Before the awards were over, they also had a chance to register their off-the-Richter-scale appreciation for CA's Emma Quinn, who ran nearly a minute-PR to place 4th overall in the girls race, and for themselves for placing second, without a doubt their finest race of the year.

It was a pretty good day for Concord Academy cross-country.

I know that small leagues like the EIL don't merit the same attention as the Bay State league or Dual-County League. The EIL has far fewer competitors, and the level of competition is generally less intense. I guess this is because in addition to the small numbers, EIL cross-country competitors are likely to be one-season runners, without indoor and outdoor track to hone their speed and continue their endurance training.

But, to paraphrase Arthur Lydiard, there are potential champions in every small school in the land, and all they need to emerge is a little encouragement, a little attention. The overall winner of yesterday's boys race was Sam Fujimori, a freshman at Bancroft Academy. He ran 18:04, a modest time by Bay State standards, but the kid is a tiger. I saw him attack the hills at Larz Anderson (5K course) in his first race of the year and was impressed even then at his fearlessness.

Olivia Fay, a junior at Portsmouth Abbey School, won the girls race by 45 seconds, running 19:28. And remember, that's with no indoor track and a very limited outdoor track season.

Both of these runners might get faster at a bigger public school with more training and stiffer competition, but that's not really the point. The point is that their achievements matter, and are impressive within the confines and context of their current world. And the basis of ALL achievement is the ability to care about doing your best and getting better.

The winning girls team is an example of this. The Winsor girls, coached by Moriah Musto, placed six girls in the top twelve and won the meet with 30 points. Earlier in the season they won the Division I race at the Canterbury Invitational in Connecticut. They set a standard of excellence within the EIL that schools like Concord Academy strive to match.

So when you look at the times from the meet, don't think about how these schools would stack up against the Newton Norths or Brooklines of the world, think about how great it is that even in the EILs, when the athletes step up and run their hearts out, you can still hear cheers that echo in your head for days.

EIL Cross Country Championships - Results