When Forest MacKenzie was a freshman, the Concord boys’ cross country team finished fifth. Respectable, but not quite in the upper echelon of New Hampshire programs. Four years, two undefeated seasons and a pair of state championships later, the Concord boys’ cross country team is indisputably the best team in the state.
While a lot of factors have gone into the transformation of the Tide from a Division I cellar dweller (Concord finished 16th in 2013) to New England title contender, MacKenzie certainly played a pivotal role.
MacKenzie defended his Division I title, secured the Meet of Champions title, and was New Hampshire’s top runner at New Englands, finishing seventh. MacKenzie helped lead his squad (or Tribe, as the team refers to itself) to defend both D-I and MOC titles.
Concord was also New Hampshire’s top team at New Englands, finishing seventh overall.
“It’s awesome, plain and simple, there’s no way to put it other than that,” MacKenzie said. “It’s something you dream about. To be a part of a team when it wasn’t very good and to work collaboratively with my teammate and my coach (Tristan Black-Ingersoll), it shows that anything is possible.”
The Tide was already a program on the rise when MacKenzie joined the team as a freshman, but his contributions helped push Concord over the top, establishing it as the team to beat.
The No. 1 runner for the Tide in the majority of the team’s races over the past two years, MacKenzie has been a leader of a pack that has only lost to one New Hampshire team in the last three seasons. Concord has topped all Granite State competitors in the last two years, and the only blemish on Concord’s otherwise perfect 2016 season was when Pinkerton defeated the Tide by four points for the D-I crown.
Concord’s season didn’t culminate with the New England title that MacKenzie and his teammates were working towards after finishing fifth at the New England championship in 2017, but MacKenzie still put himself, and his team, in the Concord High and state record books.
MacKenzie’s win in last year’s D-I championship (in 15:52.2) led the Tide to its first cross country title since 1981 and the best team score (28 points) in at least 30 years. MacKenzie also led a 1-2-3 Concord finish with teammates Eli Boesch-Dining and Ollie Spencer, the first 1-2-3 finish in D-I since Concord swept the top five places and won the championship in 1963.
He followed that performance by finishing third in last year’s MOC, helping the Tide set a MOC record for the lowest average of top five runners (15:53.92).
This year, MacKenzie won the D-I title at Derryfield Park in Manchester in 15:48, smashing his previous title-winning time of 16:12.2, despite rainy, muddy and windy conditions.
At MOC, MacKenzie became just the second male runner in Concord High history to win a MOC title and the first to win one at Mines Falls Park in Nashua. That victory put MacKenzie in the elite company of Olympian Guor Miading Miaker, the other Concord male runner to win New Hampshire’s top individual prize.
Prior to the championship meets, MacKenzie had already built an impressive regular season resume, winning the Cofrin Classic and Nashua North Invitational to open the season. MacKenzie’s winning mark of 15:35 set a Nashua North Invitational record and also helped Concord set the record for best top-five average time (16:02).
MacKenzie wrapped up the regular season by defending his Capital Area Cross Country Championship title in a course-record time of 15:56.
Coach Tristan Black-Ingersoll, who has turned the program cross country around drastically since taking over in 2013, has led with the mantra “trust the process,” and few athletes have lived it better than MacKenzie.
Despite a promising future as a wrestler, MacKenzie stopped competing for the Concord High wrestling team after his sophomore year to focus on running training year round. However, MacKenzie is quick to remember the role that wrestling has played in his athletic career.
MacKenzie’s style of racing does not rely solely on speed, but also on toughness, taking the lead and wearing down the other runners, pushing the pace in difficult spots on the course. This tactic especially paid off in the harsh weather and conditions of championship races this fall.
“The conditions didn’t work for anyone except Forest,” coach Black-Ingersoll said after the Meet of Champions. “I’m happy for Forest. He worked really hard to prepare for this.”
“There’s probably a hundred guys more talented than I am (at New Englands), but coming in seventh is a byproduct product of toughness and hard work,” MacKenzie said after New Englands. “It’s a huge advantage because you know what you can put yourself through and you just go out there and do it. Honestly, I give a lot of kudos to (wrestling) coach (Ham) Munnell. He teaches you how to be tough and the Brotherhood is all about the grind. I wouldn’t have been here without that too.”
The Brotherhood, a nickname for the Concord High wrestling team, is another aspect of the sport MacKenzie brought to cross country when he and his teammates named the cross country team the Tribe.
Several of MacKenzie’s teammates also sacrificed other sports and commitments to be able to train together year-round and that sense of community was key to helping the team “trust in the (training) process.”
MacKenzie will continue his cross country career for the University of New Hampshire next year, but for all of MacKenzie’s personal accomplishments, it’s his team’s success that he is especially grateful for.
“I want to thank everybody who got me here,” MacKenzie said. “I want to thank my dad who was our coach in middle school (Deerfield Community School) and a lot of our success in high school has come from that. Also to all the guys who ran with us. I’m blessed to have been part of this program and to hopefully create a dynasty. I hope to be in a position where you’re always talking to a Concord guy (as a top runner) each year.”