Head Coach Keri Lambert first started cross country in 8th grade, joining 99 other middle schoolers on the team, including her older brothers. Lambert went on to have an excellent competitive history at Amherst College, running twelve seasons and earning seven All-Americans. She later attended Yale graduate school, serving as a graduate assistant coach for Yale’s Women’s cross country and track and field.
Lambert’s passion for coaching girls cross country stems from empowering young female student-athletes to become confident in their capabilities. Furthermore, Lambert loves to form new relationships with hardworking people and continue to connect with them throughout the season with spontaneous conversations.
“My love for the sport and my strong belief that it can empower students, especially girls, to feel comfortable, strong, and capable in their bodies. Cross country also tends to attract super hard-working, thoughtful, and often quirky people, who I enjoy working with. My favorite way to connect with athletes is through conversations on easy trail runs, when we jump from topic to topic to topic, often totally unrelated to running,” said Lambert.
Adding onto Lambert’s point, Ela Budzinski ’28 vividly recalls one of the conversations noting how the friendly and welcoming nature of the conversation made Budzinski, a new Junior, feel more integrated into the team.
“There was one time where we were on a long run and we [Coach and I] ran together. We had a really nice conversation. It didn’t feel like I was talking to my coach. It just felt like I was talking to my friend. We really connected on running because she was a runner herself. It had a strong impact on me and I felt so welcome on the team,” said Ela Budzinski.
Lambert argues that cross country is about more than just who finishes with the fastest time. She sees it as a sport that emphasizes four core values — selflessness, integrity, inclusion, and joy — all deeply connected through teamwork and sportsmanship.
“Cross Country is often believed to be an individual sport for stoic people who look a particular way. PAXC challenges that stereotype in every sense by emphasizing that we are strongest when we work together, find joy in hard work, and welcome people from all athletic backgrounds, including those who have never done a sport before. Integrity is a value that we try to impart in a wide variety of ways, from talking about the importance of sportsmanship, emphasizing wellness and the need to respect our bodies and selves, and really trying hard to practice how we perform,” said Lambert.
Anya Budzinski ’26 reflected on how Lambert creates a bond amongst Girls Cross Country. Lambert’s emphasis on community can be shown when she encourages team exercises before and after practices and matches.
“She really encourages us to work together in workouts and in races, and also warming up together and cooling down together after workouts, using each other to help each other get better. I think that really builds a tight community in which everyone is working together to improve and everyone is supporting each other because she encourages us to do everything in practice together and at meets. That really builds the community and no one is left running by themselves,” said Anya Budzinski.
Under Lambert’s inclusive spirit, integrating within the team proved to be easy for new students such as Ela Budzinski. Understanding how Ela Budzinski and other Juniors do not have much previous experience running cross country, Lambert has continuously cared for their health throughout the season.
“She was a big reason why it was so good for me because me and a few other [Juniors who] don’t have as much running experience as people that have been at the school for a couple of years, so she’s definitely been looking out for us… She’s making sure that we’re not running too far or have too much mileage or overdoing it, so she’s really caring. I appreciated how she’s looked out for us,” said Ela Budzinski.
Although Lambert’s assistant position at Yale prohibited her from being able to impact the team in a significant way, being a Head Coach at Andover in 2020 allowed Lambert to become more intimate with the team’s needs by designing workouts and checking in on athletes.
“Some things were totally different and others very much the same. At Yale, I was a grad assistant, so I didn’t design workouts or shape the team’s experience in big ways. But from the head coach there I learned the importance of frequently checking in with athletes, tailoring workouts to individuals’ needs, and generally meeting athletes where they’re at on any given day, all of which was pretty different from my own competitive experience as an athlete. I learned that sometimes less is more, and that’s a lesson I feel like I’m constantly trying to impart on Andover athletes,” said Lambert.
Lambert will continue as the Head Coach of Girls Indoor Track and Field in the Winter.
