Just the facts:
Coach: Anders Vikstrom
Schedule: Meet of Champions 3/12
State Championship: March 4, 2019 @ Gunstock
Post-season Accolades:
At the winter sports awards night, the Bulldog Award (MVP) went to the team’s two fastest skiiers: Haley Schmidt for the girls and Tommy Saltzman for the boys. The Sportsmanship Award was awarded to Abby Zenzian for the girls and Nick Michaud for the boys.
Next year’s captains are Maddy Beaton and Tommy Saltzman.
State Championship Meet:
The girls placed third, and the boys place fourth! Apparently, most of their on-snow practice was during the actual competitions throughout January and February. So, it’s pretty impressive that we placed so high, and are sending four people to the meet of champions: Haley Schmitt, Avery Manni, Abby Guerette, and Tommy Saltzman. Bedford, eh?
The results of our top four BHS skiiers in each race:
Girls Classic: Haley Schmitt (18:49), Avery Manni (20:56), Jamie Karr (21:51), and Abby Guerette (22:18).
Boys Classic: Tommy Saltzman (17:30), Evan Kaplo (17:42), Nick Michaud (18:20), and Noel Desmarais (19:54).
Girls Skate: Haley Schmitt (16:56), Abby Guerette (18:14), Avery Manni (18:53), and Grace Horton (22:41).
Boys Skate: Tommy Saltzman (15:54), Evan Kaplo (17:14), Noel Desmarais (17:18), and Luke Knedeisen (17:23).
Regular Season:
Meet 9: 2/19 Capital Championship at Gunstock
The girls finished 5th, and the boys finished 7th. The top three finishers for the girls were Haley Schmitt (14:58), Abby Guerette (17:09), and Avery Manni (18:04). For the boys, Tommy Saltzman (14:27), Evan Kaplo (15:16), and Nick Michaud (15:32) placed the highest for Bedford.
Meet 7: 2/13 at Waterville Valley
This was a seven km race, which is longer than the normal four km race. The top three finishers for the Bedford girls were Abby Guerette (28:24), Roisi Russell (30:56), and Grace Horton (34:14). For the boys, Tommy Saltzman (21:55), Evan Kaplo (25:05), and Noel Desmarais (25:06) were the top finishers.
Meet 6: 2/9 at Whittaker Woods
With high wind speeds, there was apparently a lot of debris on the course. Just an added effect – the skiiers not only had to skate as fast as they could, but also dodge sticks and rocks. Fun stuff. The top three finishers for the girls were Haley Schmitt (21:13), Avery Manni (23:12), and Abby Guerette (25:00). The top three finishers for the boys were Nick Michaud (19:53), Tommy Saltzman (20:24), and Evan Kaplo (20:26).
Meet 5: 2/2 at Plainfield Elementary
A really, really cold day. But that didn’t stop us! Overall, the girls finished in fifth place, and the boys finished in sixth place. The top three Bedford girls were Haley Schmitt (21:00), Avery Manni (22:46), and Abby Guerette (25:08). The top three Bedford boys were Tommy Saltzman (19:56), Nick Michaud (20:44), and Evan Kaplo (20:49).
Meet 4: 1/30 at Gunstock
A good meet! Haley Schmitt (20:03), Avery Manni (23:22), and Abby Guerette (23:31) were the top finishers for the girls. For the boys, Tommy Saltzman (17:07), Nick Michaud (18:21), and Evan Kaplo (19:43) were the top three finishers for the team.
Meet 3: 1/26 at NHNCA Skate
Sorry! We don’t have results for this meet. Yes, we’re sad too.
Meet 2: 1/19 at Gunstock
In this meet, the racing teams were mixed between boys and girls. Tommy Saltzman and Haley Schmitt won the team A race.
Meet 1: 1/10 at Proctor Academy
Hmmm. Looks like the team’s prediction (see below) was spot-on. The boys finished fifth in the opening meet, while the girls finished last. But, hey, how ’bout that warming hut!
Preview:
The official projection from the team for this upcoming season: “a solid meh.” They expect to place third overall due to their loss of key seniors last year. Apparently, 3rd = meh. Who knew? Since both boys and girls teams finished third last year, we guess that was meh as well. To be honest, we feel like the highest they could really shoot for would be second, since Concord has won both the boys and girls team championships for the past ten years. On top of that, according to our source, Concord wins with “no remorse.” We don’t even understand what that means, but it sounds terrible. The top skiiers this year are expected to be juniors, Tommy Saltzman, Nick Michaud and Haley Schmitt, and sophomore Abby Guerette. Now, we have never looked at cross country skiing and thought “that looks like fun.” Apparently, neither did most of the team. Most join for school hours, and end up loving it. But some are forced (is anyone really surprised?). Also, you’re welcome — we finally got to the bottom of what really happens in the warming hut: a super elite society with plans for establishing superiority over all other sports, especially Alpine, with their “awesome Nordic skills.” We’ve got to say, we didn’t know those existed. But, Alpine’s response? They’re remaining humble since Nordic has yet to win a state championship. @Nordic, we think you need to apply snow to that burn.