This is Sideline Stories. A platform where NE10 student-athletes can share their collegiate experiences in an unfiltered environment - using their voices to promote growth and positive change in our league and in all of NCAA Division II athletics.

Anna Lastra, a runner on the Stonehill cross country and track & field teams, is one of many NE10 senior student-athletes affected by the recent sport cancellations due to COVID-19. She reflects on the situation in this edition of Sideline Stories...

The past couple weeks have been an emotional roller coaster with a different update every day knocking me down. Being a second semester senior, I feel as though I’ve lost everything that brings me so much joy - my school, my team, my friends, and my sport.

This year has been nowhere close to what I had wanted it to be. I dealt with low iron issues the whole first half of the school year, causing a less than satisfactory cross country season. I didn’t know it would get much worse from there.

Just as I had picked myself up from the crushing end to cross country and finally got some solid training in for indoor track, I found out I had a fracture in my ankle only two weeks before the NE10 Championship; my last NE10 Indoor Championship was taken from me. Being able to watch my team compete and win our (the seniors’) 11th consecutive team title did bring a lot of joy, though my heart still hurt from not being able to compete.

After six weeks of cross training in the pool at the YMCA, on the bike, and the elliptical (not to mention, five of those weeks were spent walking in a boot), I thought I would finally get my redemption. Outdoor track was going to be my comeback season.

The week I finally got out of my boot, and one week before I’d start running, news hit that schools were going remote and seasons were cancelling. When I got the call from my coach saying that the whole season was completely cancelled, I was devastated.

No more comeback season, no more outdoor track, no more competing as a Skyhawk, no more of so many things I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to.

The next day, Stonehill moved to remote learning for the rest of the semester after we originally held out hope of being able to return to campus. That meant no more sleepovers with my best friends, seeing my professors or classmates, or just enjoying a meal at the “track table.”

While this is a hard time for everyone, the class of 2020 got hit a little extra hard by these unfortunate circumstances and nothing will quite ever fill that void in our hearts from losing so many things we love.

I understand the reasoning for everything that has happened and know it is in the best interest of the world’s health, but also can’t help but feel so sad for the losses we’ve experienced because of it.

I’d like to thank my teammates and coaches throughout my time at Stonehill College for building me up to be the strong, #badass individual that I’ve become and I know that in the end, this will only make us stronger.

We got this, guys. #NE10EMBRACE

-Anna Lastra