Clare Struzziery, Staff Writer
December 8, 2023
“We just stayed gritty,” Captain Matthew Loose (Class I) said regarding the Nobles Boys Cross Country team’s back-to-back ISL Championship Race win. On November 3, the boys’ cross country team descended on the Wrentham Developmental Center for the culminating race of their season. This meet consisted of all sixteen ISL schools in the boys’ race, and the course navigated 5 kilometers of grass. The Nobles boys ran fast, tough races and walked away with their second ISL title in two years. Head Coach David Ulrich said of the achievement, “It requires years of preparation, and a lot of things need to come into place at the right time.” Indeed, everything seemed to come into place for the team that day: months of training, strong packs, and inspiring finishes.
Coming into the season, the legacy of the 2022 ISL win was on the minds of both runners and coaches. On motivating underclassmen during grueling practices, Captain Charlie Hall (Class I) said, “It was made easier by the fact that we won the ISL last year.” However, having a standard to uphold can also prove challenging. Coach George Blake said, “I think that there was a little feeling of some pressure to try to repeat and do it again.” The team had also changed with the graduation of seniors and the arrival of a new class of Class IV runners. Luckily, many of last year’s top finishers remained, and underclassmen stepped up in a big way. Henry McLane (Class IV), brother of Will McLane (N’ 23)—a captain of the 2022 team—was a strong varsity performer all season. “I think he was just determined to stay with the pack. So he was able to step in and fill up a really big position,” Blake said.
At the beginning of the season, Nobles lost a tough race to Tabor Academy on the day of the MAC flood. “It definitely prevented us from getting in over our heads. I think that humbled us a little bit,” Hall said of the loss. After this obstacle, the team won the rest of their regular season races. Going into ISLs, the team had their eye on Tabor and Belmont Hill and Roxbury Latin, Nobles’ traditional rivals in boys’ cross country.
Throughout the season, captains Patrick Albers, Timothy Churchill, Charlie Hall, and Matthew Loose (all Class I) worked to cultivate a culture of discipline among team members. Although team culture has always been positive and strong, Loose said, “Last year, we shifted a lot more to just putting that work in.” Leading by example was important to these captains. “You can’t just be yelling at guys to put in the work,” Loose said. In addition, the coaches emphasized pack running. “Having little groups in practice to push you is huge,” Hall said. Balancing fun and work was tough for these team leaders, but having eager and hardworking underclassmen made it easier. “We have some underclassmen…who I think are just very competitive people. They were going to try their best to push themselves,” Blake said.
Pack running carried over onto ISL race day. Throughout the varsity and junior varsity races, strong Nobles packs were everywhere. In cross country, the top seven runners from each team compete in the varsity race, but only the top five are scored. Each runner’s place adds a number of points to their team’s tally, and the team with the lowest number of points wins. In the varsity race, Churchill came in 6th overall, followed closely by Noah Douglas (Class II) in 9th place. Ben Guenther (Class I) took 18th, and McLane and Alex Cheng (Class III) finished 22nd and 24th, respectively. “They made a really nice push to shave off a lot of points at the end,” Hall said. All top five Nobles runners finished in under 17 minutes.
The dedication and spirit of these runners played a large role in the team’s hard-fought victory. “The team stayed hungry, both personally and as a team. They pushed themselves for more,” Blake said. The determination and grit on display throughout both races were incredible. Having so many team members buy in to push themselves is a feat, and as more races are won, the team’s legacy of success becomes stronger. Loose said, “I think we’ve cultivated somewhat of a culture of excellence with everyone really pushing to be their best because of the talent we have on the team and the work ethic we’ve developed.” This culture has been built to endure to future generations of the team, hopefully leading to more accomplishments like this one.
(Photo Credits: Karl Cheng)
