Varsity Track and Field Wins 9th EIL Championship

The varsity track and field team won their 9th straight Eastern Independent League Championship on Saturday, May 10 at East Providence High School in Rhode Island. 

Winsor finished first with a total of 148.50 points—27 points over second place finisher Concord Academy’s 121.50 and 70 points over third place finisher Portsmouth Abbey’s 78.

“The weather this season was not track and field friendly,” said longtime Coach Shalise Manza Young, who was named the EIL Coach of the Year for track and field for the sixth year in a row. “The members of Winsor’s track and field team posted lots of great performances despite competing through cold and rain at nearly all of our meets.”

By any measure it was a successful season. Student athletes recorded 33 personal bests at the meet at Milton Academy alone from both veterans and newcomers alike and eight athletes either moved up on Winsor’s all-time top-10 record lists or entered the list for the first time. 

But Winsor track and field has one team goal every year: win EILs. “We knew it would take a total team effort, and that’s what the Wildcats delivered,” said Coach Young, noting the team fought for wins in six events.

At the EIL Championship, an EIL meet record was set in the 4 x 400 meter relay with a time of 4:16.90 by Tessa Laurans ’28, Gabrielle Peskin ’28, Maddie Cheng ’25, and Lara do Rosario ’26. Maddie finished second in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and Tessa finished second in the 400 meter dash. Gabrielle and Gracie Zhou ’26 finished first and second in 1500 and 800 meter races, with Gabrielle’s winning times of 5:01.75 and 2:27.55 in respective events.

In the 3000 meter race Winsor swept the first four places with Dani Peskin ’30 winning the race in 11:33.67 and Lilah Glazer ’28, Leila Andermann ’27 and Julica Hatabu ’28 finishing second, third and fourth respectively.

Nia Lawrence ’26 won the discus event with a throw of 82-5 and Yemisi Adetowubo ’26 won the triple jump with a distance of 34-2.50. Numerous other Winsor runners, throwers and jumpers finished in the top 6 to secure points to help the track team continue their winning ways.

After the EIL victory, the season ended at the NEPSTA Division II championship, where the Wildcats were sixth of 17 teams. In a sign of how bright the team’s future can be, only 4.5 of the 38.5 points scored came from seniors. At New England’s, Yemisi broke the 11-year old school record in shot put with a throw of 31-9.

Congratulations to all the members of the Varsity track and field team on their EIL Championship!