Sarah Fortier scored the sudden-death overtime goal that gave Concord-Carlisle High School its second straight MIAA Division 1 girls lacrosse title on Wednesday, June 10. Five months earlier, she helped the Patriots girls swimming team finish undefeated and win a third consecutive Division 1 state crown.

Seven state championship medals. Five team titles. Two sports. One athlete.

Fortier, a co-captain and midfielder, wove through the Notre Dame Academy (Hingham) defense to end the championship game 10-9 in overtime, capping a 20-win season for the Patriots. In the pool, she won the individual 100-yard breaststroke title as both a junior and a senior, adding two individual golds to her five team medals.

"I've had a few weeks to let it sink in," Fortier told The Concord Bridge in a profile published Friday, July 25. "Looking back at it, I mostly think of all the people, all my teammates and coaches."

The roots run deep. Fortier started swimming at age 5 for the Heritage Pool and Racquet Club in Concord. She picked up lacrosse in third grade, following her older sister Julia, who graduated from CCHS in 2022, played goalie for the Patriots, and went on to compete at the Division I level for Dartmouth College. When Julia came home from Dartmouth, the sisters would head to the turf so Sarah could practice shooting against a college-level goalkeeper.

Girls lacrosse coach Erin Cash called Fortier "an amazing leader" who is "so resilient and so competitive." Swimming coach Matt Goldberg noted that Fortier never trained year-round with a club swim program, competing only at Heritage in the summer. "She just fights really hard," Goldberg said. "She's such a competitor."

The swim team's third straight title did not come easily. At a joint Concord-Carlisle and Concord School Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 6, team members described an unexpected mid-season realignment that forced them to rally in the final races, with the divers contributing the winning points.

Fortier credited her dual-sport career with keeping her fresh and helping her lead. After the lacrosse team's first loss of the season, she told teammates about races she had lost in swimming and reminded them that what mattered was where they stood at season's end.

She heads to Middlebury College in September to play lacrosse for a program that won its fifth straight NCAA Division III national championship in May 2026, defeating Wesleyan (CT) 8-6.

CCHS has produced at least one state championship team every year since the 2006-07 school year, according to The Concord Bridge. Fortier accounted for five of those titles in just three seasons. She is spending the summer coaching and swimming at Heritage Pool and Racquet Club before departing for Middlebury in September.