For many students, their journey, sparked at Milton Academy, can continue beyond their high school years. Esme Campbell ’26’s distance running path certainly reflects this pattern. However, her career wasn’t always linear.
Up until high school, Campbell’s sports path revolved around soccer. In fact, in her freshman year at Milton, Campbell had actually played for the Girls’ Third Soccer team. In the spring of her freshman year, Campbell joined the track team merely to “fulfill [her] sports requirement.” This requirement led Campbell to fall in love with running. After making connections on the team and gaining a newfound love for running, Campbell spent the summer before her sophomore year preparing for the Cross Country Team in the fall. Four years later, now attending Georgetown University, Campbell holds multiple Girls’ Cross Country course records from the Milton home course of Cunningham Park and still holds the fastest time with a 19:00 5k. At Georgetown, Campbell continues to partake in cross country, following the same love she found in her freshman year.
Despite the cross country throughline, for Campbell, “the transition [from high school to college]… was more challenging than…expected.” She found that the challenge lay not in the rigor of the courses but in “developing a sense of the different expectations at college” while simultaneously juggling “being immersed in so many new experiences.” Pulling her athletics career into the equation, she also struggled with finding a balance between training and academics. Sometimes she would have to skip team lifts for class or wake up early to workout if she anticipated a workout would bleed into class. As an athlete, Campbell faces difficulties that not many other students face: choosing whether to prioritize academics or athletics.
Because of her morning cross country practices, she cannot study into the night like other students who can afford to stay up late, so she described finding a balance that’s unique to her commitments “has definitely been tough but so rewarding.” Although she did not consider it a struggle, Campbell faced culture shock when she first joined the university’s cross country team. Most notably, the close-knit training style surprised her; she said, “the most shocking thing… was how much everyone runs together.” Campbell noted that, like Milton, Georgetown’s team has a wide range of runners, yet this training style persists. During their workouts, Georgetown cross country athletes “run in packs or single file on the track, so there’s a huge focus on running reps together while modifying volume person to person.”
Now, further into the season, this style of practice—along with the many traditions the team houses—has become less of a shock for Campbell and more of a constant reminder that “[they’re] all in it together.” Having participated in the cross country season for around a month, Campbell has undeniably accomplished many things. For her, however, the greatest accomplishment was making the cross country roster itself. At first, the coach could not guarantee her position on the team, given the limited spots. But the coach gave her a shot, and she won her first open 5k three weekends ago. With her persistence and resilience, Campbell brings the influence from her Milton career into the Georgetown cross country team.