Cross Country Wins ISL Team, Individual Titles

NCS's varsity cross country team finished the 2017 season on a high note, capturing its first Independent School League team championship since 2012 and taking third place in the D.C. State Athletic Association championships.

 

In the final local races of her high school cross country career, Page Lester '18 claimed a third individual ISL title and a second consecutive DCSAA title. In four years, Lester won 12 of her 18 local races, taking second in four others. She will run later this month in the Foot Locker cross country championships.

 

In the ISL championships on Oct. 28, NCS's top five runners tied Stone Ridge with 75 points, requiring a tiebreaker to decide the champion. Because NCS's sixth runner finished before Stone Ridge's, the Eagles won the title banner. Lester's time of 17:56 lowered her own course record by three seconds, and Sophia Hanway '21 took fourth place. Sophia Charles '20, Maya Thumpasery '21, Isabella Houle '19, Lilly Freemyer '18, and Isabel Stone '18 also contributed to the team title.

 

A week later, NCS placed six runners in the top 30 at the DCSAA meet in taking third place, behind St. John's College High School and Wilson High. Lester's winning time was 16 seconds faster than a year earlier, and Hanway again took fourth place, completing a season in which the freshman recorded four top-five finishes.