On Oct. 8, senior Claire Sewald announced her commitment to run cross country and track and field at Colgate University via Instagram.
Sewald has played a variety of sports during her time at WHS including soccer and tennis but after joining the track and field team during the winter season her sophomore year, following some soccer teammates, Sewald slowly came to find that track was her favorite. This year is the first year she decided to join the cross country team once deeming running as her main sport.
At the beginning of her track journey, Sewald joined the team more for the fun environment, however she soon realized that she could take this talent to the next level. She said, “Spring sectionals of my sophomore year is when I went to sectionals and that’s when it got more serious and ever since then I have loved it.”
Sewald has been a part of history in the WHS track program, winning two team sectional titles. Sewald competed in both recent girls track sectional championship runs, the 2024 Spring Sectionals and 2025 Winter Sections where the team won sections for the first time in their respective winter and spring seasons. To add to this list of accomplishments, Sewald placed first at the 2025 Spring Sectionals as a part of the 4×800 meter relay, where the team took 2nd as a whole.
Girls XCTF head coach Joseph Berardi said, “She’s one of the most improved athletes I’ve ever coached from when she started to where she’s at now, it says a lot. There really aren’t too many girls that have dropped more times and contributed in the way she has, so it’s exciting.”
Sewald’s love for the Westfield XCTF program attracted her to the idea of running in college. She said, “Especially not doing track or cross country all four years [of high school ] I just feel like I have more to give to the sport. Especially finishing last year, the thought of having only one more year really upset me and I love the team aspect so much. I love the sport of running, it teaches you so many good things in life, I just really wanted to continue that on the collegiate level.”
At Colgate, Sewald will be running at the Division I level, competing as a part of the Patriot League. She said, “I got to meet the team and the team was so nice, they really reminded me of my friends at track and how we joke around. The coaches are so supportive and it just seemed like a good environment. It is also a good school where I felt I could thrive and I could get stuff out of it academically and athletically.”
Colgate University is a prestigious, private liberal arts school located upstate in Hamilton, NY. It’s a small school with around 3,100 students. According to usnews.com, Colgate was ranked #14 in Lowest Acceptance Rates and #22 in National Liberal Arts Colleges in its 2026 edition.
Led by head coach Chelsea France, this 2025 cross country season, Colgate’s women’s team placed 13th out of 24 teams at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships. In the 2025 outdoor track and field season, the women’s team placed 7th at the Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Sewald is excited to see where her collegiate career will take her after finishing this cross country season and her last winter and spring high school seasons coming up.
