Winsor Athletics Closes the 2022 Fall Season

November 29, 2022—Director of Athletics Sherren Granese welcomed the athletes, coaches, parents, and staff members at the Fall Athletics Banquet—the first year since 2019—to recap the fall sports season. 

“More important than the wins and losses, I hope you’ll remember the little steps that you took throughout the season,” said Ms. Granese, to the student athletes Tuesday night. “The beginning steps of coming together to form your teams and begin your seasons. Captains and seniors stepping into your new roles of leading your teams. The steps that you took to get to know each other and become closer friends and teammates.” She continued, “For some of you it may have been the first time you stepped onto the field or into a boat to represent Winsor. For others it may have been your last time. Whatever your next steps are, please know how proud I am of all of you and how you represented Winsor on and off the field. Thank you for a wonderful fall that I’ll remember fondly.”

Thank you to the coaching staff, Assistant Director of Athletics Trina Hable, Athletics Administrative Assistant Tiffany Marshall, and Head Athletic Trainer Adam Newell, as well as all the wonderful parents for your support and encouragement throughout the fall. Read on for a summary for each of the sports teams’ performances this fall and remarks from the coaches:

The fall season for the Winsor Rowing Team was defined by its positivity and growth. Beginning the season with the CRI Fall Classic, the Winsor crews set a high bar for achievement by placing 4th out of 26 in the Varsity 8+ and achieving top half of the field in both fours. After these results, the entire team made a decision to train for success every day at practice, resulting in a Gold medal for the Varsity 4+, a Silver medal in the Varsity 8+, and a Bronze medal for the 2V 8+ at the Textile River Regatta. The Varsity crew then went on to medal in all events at the New England High School Championships. The hard work demonstrated by the Varsity crew was matched with the efforts of our Novice rowers, who began rowing in September. Small in number, but mighty in spirit, these rowers took to the Textile River Regatta and New England Championships with grit and placed in the top 10 of both regattas. The hard work of the Varsity crews paid off at the Head of the Charles regatta, finishing 8th and 49th in the 4+ and the 8+ respectively. To finish the season off, on October 29, Winsor competed in an intersquad regatta, “Crazy 8+s”, where all rowers raced in mixed lineups. This race demonstrated how the entire crew came together over the season from Novice to Varsity and worked together to have a positive, competitive season.  

JV Field Hockey had an amazing season, finishing with an overall record of 9-3-1. The team was undefeated in EIL games, beating both NCDS and Pingree twice. The team finished with eight shutouts and outscored their opponents 30 to 5. From the beginning of the season until the end, the team worked hard to get better every day. We had a mix of players who had a number of years of experience in the sport, to players who just picked up a stick for the first time. They were able to support each other and make each other better. Led by our three captains, Casey Carlisle ’25, Isabella Fiutak ’25, and Cate Ewald ’25, our team was able to achieve our winning season. Our final games were some of the best to watch as you could see that everyone was working together and playing as a team on the field.  

The Varsity Field Hockey team continued to be a force in the EIL and beyond this year, finishing in third place behind Pingree and Newton Country Day with a 6-2-1 conference record and becoming one of only eight teams selected to the NEPSAC Class C tournament with an overall 10-6-1 record. Don’t let the numbers fool you, as this season was full of challenges and challenging matches: the team graduated their top three leading goal scorers from last season, faced one of their most grueling schedules to date, and was riddled with injuries along the way. Despite all odds, the team still figured out how to find the back of the net and keep their own goal protected. The Varsity field hockey team tallied a total of 48 goals while allowing only 18. The Wildcat defense proved to be incredibly difficult to beat as they had nine shutout performances on the season. Of the 16-member squad, 13 athletes tallied at least one goal this year (including seven athletes that knocked in their first goal of their Varsity career!) Highlights of the season include a 4-0 shutout against Class A Austin Prep, a huge 2-0 victory over a gritty Dexter Southfield team (that marked Coach Calamari-Kirwan’s 130th win,) and a larger-than-life 2-1 win over NCDS on Senior Day. Although Winsor’s own pipe dream of making it back to the NEPSAC Championships for the second year in a row fell short in the Quarterfinal round, there is no denying that what this group accomplished this season was impressive. 

The JV Soccer team had a great season! What set us apart from most teams was that we had a talented group of athletes who weren’t content with where they were at. They were willing to work on their weaknesses, desired to improve each day, and genuinely wanted to win every game. We ended the season with an EIL record of 5-1-3 and had a goal differential of plus 17. Most importantly, the team got along, had fun playing with each other and supported one another both on and off of the field. 

The 2022 Winsor Wildcat Soccer team performed at a high level this year. We played a small possession team game that allowed us to dominate possession against the majority of our opponents that we faced. The season opened up with convincing back-to-back wins over Lexington Christian Academy and Portsmouth Abbey.  

The team then went on to beat the Rivers School for the first time in over 15 years by a score of 2-1. Varsity Soccer finished the season with an impressive 8-4-2 overall record. With a hard-fought 1-0 win over NCDS at home on senior day, the team finished their season undefeated at home, which is never a small task. The NCDS win secured a 3rd place seeding in the EIL post season tournament, the highest finish for the past several years. 

The JV Volleyball team was an extraordinary team to say the least. The team demonstrated perseverance throughout the season. Their energy and determination was evident during the first few days of tryouts and practice and continued throughout the season. Head Coach Ren Garcia remarked, “I was so excited to coach this year’s players and I knew right away that it was going to be a great group and a great season. This was an incredibly hard working team that played hard throughout every set and point.”

The Varsity Volleyball team was incredibly young, with only a few returning starters from last year’s team. The young team worked hard to improve as individual players and as a team, pushing themselves and their teammates to be the best team they could be. Whether it was serving each other off the court, trying to improve their passing, or blocking each other at the net so they could learn how to better hit around a block, this team did everything they could to earn their spots and make each other better. 

The team finished with an impressive 9-4 EIL record, which propelled them to a tie for 3rd place during the regular season. Matched up with NCDS in the EIL post season tournament, the team battled for every ball and point, landing just a little bit short in each game. With 13 returning players the future looks bright for the volleyball program. 

Winsor Cross Country had our largest team to date with 23 runners including a whopping ten rookies and four Lower Schoolers. The young deep team came into the season with a singular goal of defending our EIL title and maintaining our eight-year undefeated streak in the EIL. We achieved both despite a persistent Pingree squad who forced a tiebreaker twice this season: first at our home dual meet and again at the EIL Championships. In each case Winsor’s 6th runner was the deciding factor with Helena Nguyen ’23 earning the edge at our home meet and Raina Sohur ’23 breaking the tie at EILs by edging the Pingree 6th runner by two seconds. We finished our regular season at 12-0 in the EIL and 13-3 overall with our only dual meet losses coming to ISL Champ and runner up, Middlesex and Milton and NEPSTA D1 runner up Exeter. After our EIL victory we headed to the Division I NEPSTA Championships where we finished a solid 7th out of 14 teams in Varsity. 

Winsor was paced all year by Junior Captain Meg Madison ’24 who had her first ever undefeated NEPSAC season, as she defended her Canterbury, NMH and EIL titles while reclaiming her New England title. Serena Toscani ’25 was a rock solid #2 who ran an incredible race at EILs to finish 8th ahead of the Pingree #1 which proved critical to our win. Suzanne Pogorelec ’24 finished in the Winsor top 5 in every regular season meet and rookie senior Helena Nguyen ’23 improved over the course of the season and had a breakthrough race at EILs as Winsor’s 3rd scorer in 15th place. 

Many of the new and returning runners had outstanding seasons as well. Chrissy Mayer ’28 ran an absolutely astonishing race at NEPSTA to finish 16th in the JV race and lead the JV team to a 4th place finish against the much larger Division I schools.

A special congratulations to Meg Madison ’24 who finished 6th at the US Regional Championships. She will be traveling to San Diego, California on December 10 to compete in Nationals. 

Congratulations to all athletes for an outstanding fall season!