{"id":12221,"date":"2024-03-14T15:21:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T15:21:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Winter-Sports-Players-of-the-Season-2023-24-54311580\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=12221","title":{"rendered":"Winter 2023-24 Players of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Bow
Bow senior Adler Moura celebrates after winning the 113-pound title at the Division III state wrestling championships on Feb. 17.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"CHIP
CHIP GRIFFIN\u00a0\/ Photos By Chip<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Dawson
Dawson Fancher tries to control the puck for Concord in the Division I quarterfinal against Exeter. The senior captain totaled 12 goals and 18 assists on the season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"CHIP
CHIP GRIFFIN\u00a0\/ Photos By Chip<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Kacey
Kacey Yorston was a rock in goal for Bishop Brady-Trinity-Londonderry girls\u2019 hockey, posting a 2.15 goals-against average and helping guide the team to the playoffs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Concord\u2019s
Concord\u2019s Lily Peterson gets set in the blocks before competing in the 100-yard breaststroke at the NHIAA Division I championship at the University of New Hampshire\u2019s Swasey Pool on Feb. 10. Peterson finished second in the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Coe-Brown
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy\u2019s\u00a0Chris Raymond competes at the NHIAA Division II swimming championship at the University of New Hampshire\u2019s Swasey Pool on Feb. 10.\u00a0Raymond won both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle titles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Lucas
Lucas Golden (third from right) stands with Concord High School Alpine teammates, and head coach and father George Golden (far left) at Crotched Mountain after sweeping the giant slalom and slalom titles at the Division I boys\u2019\u00a0Alpine skiing championships on Feb. 16.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Belmont\u2019s
Belmont\u2019s Ella Stevens competes in the giant slalom at the NHIAA Division III Alpine ski championships at Gunstock on Wednesday. Stevens, a freshman, was crowned the individual champion in both the GS and slalom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Concord\u2019s
Concord\u2019s Tyler Watt competes in the freestyle race at the NHIAA Division I Nordic skiing championships at Oak Hill in Hanover on March 6. Watt won the freestyle race and finished second in the classic to lead the Concord boys\u2019\u00a0team to back-to-back titles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Concord\u2019s
Concord\u2019s Frances Lesser rounds a corner in the girls\u2019 freestyle race at the NHIAA Division I Nordic skiing championships in Hanover on March 6.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Coe-Brown\u2019s
Coe-Brown\u2019s Jamie Lano pumps his fist in celebration as he crosses the line to win the 1,500-meter title at the NHIAA Division II indoor track & field championships on Feb. 11 at Plymouth State. Lano also won the 3,000 and finished second in the 1,000 to lead Coe-Brown to back-to-back team titles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Concord\u2019s
Concord\u2019s Ella Goulas clears the high jump bar at the NHIAA Division I indoor track and field championship on\u00a0Feb. 11\u00a0at Plymouth State. Goulas won the high jump title by clearing 5-4.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

With last Sunday\u2019s Division II girls\u2019 basketball championship wrapping up the winter sports season for area teams, the Monitor would like to highlight top athletes from the Concord region. <\/p>\n

It was another strong season for area programs. In boys\u2019 basketball, Pembroke and Coe-Brown both reached the Division II semifinals, and Kearsarge reached the semifinals in Division III.<\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 basketball saw three area teams in D-II (Concord Christian, Pembroke, John Stark) reach the final four and two (CCA and Pembroke) advance to the championship game that CCA won. In D-III, Hopkinton and Kearsarge faced off for the title, with the Cougars emerging on top.<\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 hockey saw Pembroke-Campbell reach its first championship game in program history in D-III, where it came up short against Berlin-Gorham, while Concord suffered a surprising loss in its D-I quarterfinal against Exeter.<\/p>\n

In wrestling, Bow took home the Division III state championship, while Concord saw success in swimming and skiing. <\/p>\n

Here are the Monitor\u2019s players of the season for winter 2023-24: <\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 basketball: Joe Fitzgerald, Pembroke Academy <\/h2>\n

Few players stood out on their teams as much as Fitzgerald did for the Spartans this season. On a team that finished the regular season 16-2 and reached the D-II semifinals, Fitzgerald led Pembroke in scoring, averaging 25.8 points per game. He also averaged 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and shot 82% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

He scored his 1,000th career point on Feb. 9 in a 77-45 win over Kennett and finished his career with 1,141 points. He will continue his basketball career next year at Bridgton Academy in Maine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the ultimate athlete any coach would want to play for them,\u201d Pembroke head coach Mike Donnell said. \u201cJoe gave us everything he had starting day one in practice and never wavered. Joe didn\u2019t think practice was enough and spent hours each week perfecting his craft and love for basketball. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I will remember most about Joe and his leadership and caring of his teammates was after our loss to Hanover (in the semifinals), where he apologized to his teammates for not having his best game and took responsibility for it. Without (him), we would never have been there.\u201d <\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 basketball: Annelise Dexter, Pembroke Academy <\/h2>\n

The focal point of Pembroke\u2019s success all season, Dexter turned in a phenomenal senior campaign. She averaged 24.5 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals per game as the Spartans finished the season 18-4 and were the D-II runners-up.<\/p>\n

She reached the 1,000-point milestone against John Stark in late December and finished her career as the fifth-highest scorer in Pembroke basketball history, boys or girls. She also had four games scoring more than 30 points this season, including a 38-point effort against Milford on Feb. 16, and was named the Division II Player of the Year by the New Hampshire Basketball Coaches Organization.<\/p>\n

Dexter will continue her basketball career next year at the University of Rochester in New York, where the Yellowjackets compete at the Division III level in the NCAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnelise is a very driven person,\u201d Pembroke head coach Steve Langevin said. \u201cEvery offseason, she has worked on adding more and more to her game. She has goals and is not afraid to put in the time and effort to try to attain them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a pleasure watching her mature as a player but even more so as a person, especially this season. I\u2019m so happy she was able to attain her personal goals and also her team goal of putting a banner on the wall.\u201d <\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 hockey: Dawson Fancher, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

Although his career ended with a devastating overtime loss to Exeter in the quarterfinals of the D-I playoffs, it was still a strong senior year for the Concord captain.<\/p>\n

Fancher totaled 30 points (12 goals, 18 assists) in 21 games, helping to fill the Tide\u2019s void on offense this season. <\/p>\n

In the playoff matchup with Exeter, Fancher scored off a rebound to give Concord an early 1-0 lead. It was the last of the 33 goals he scored wearing the Crimson Tide uniform. He wrapped up his career with 45 assists and 78 total points, roughly one-third of which came this season. <\/p>\n

\u201cDawson was such a consistent player for us,\u201d Concord head coach Dunc Walsh said. \u201cHe gave us the same effort every game. (He was) a huge contributor for us (and) a quiet leader that led by example.\u201d <\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 hockey: Kacey Yorston, Bp. Brady-Trinity-Londonderry <\/h2>\n

When you only have two defensemen and 10 skaters on your roster, you can expect your goaltender to be very busy over the course of a season. That was the case for Bishop Brady junior Kacey Yorston on most nights, and for her efforts, Yorston is the Monitor<\/em> Girls\u2019 Hockey Player of the Season.<\/p>\n

Yorston backstopped BTL to a 9-10-0 record and a spot in the playoffs. She stopped 349 of 382 shots she faced in those 19 games with a goals against average of 2.15 goals per game and a .914 save percentage. Yorston had five shutouts and allowed just one goal in three other games.<\/p>\n

\u201cKacey is one of the best, if not the best, goaltender in the league,\u201d BTL head coach Dan Earley said. Yorston backed that statement up by making 30 or more saves in six of the games BTL played this season.<\/p>\n

Wrestling: Adler Moura, Bow High School <\/h2>\n

In a banner season for Bow wrestling, Moura led the way. As the team took home the D-III state championship on Feb. 17, Moura won the 113-pound title and was also named D-III\u2019s Outstanding Wrestler. The following week, he once again placed first in the 113-pound bracket at the state Meet of Champions after finishing as the runner up over the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n

When Bow wrestling coach Bill Chavanelle took over the program before last season, the Falcons had just seven wrestlers; this year, they had 28, and Moura played a major role in helping bring new wrestlers on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdler took his game to a new level this season. He was focused and set on his goals from the moment the season started all the way until the end,\u201d Chavanelle said. \u201cHe had a lot of pressure and expectations on him from the start of the season and, from my point of view, he absolutely shattered all the expectations that everyone placed on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach, I\u2019m just fortunate to have been in his corner the last two years. \u2026 He helped will this program back to where it once was, and that was one of his goals before his time was up at Bow High School. Adler Moura will be a kid I talk about in high regard for the remainder of my coaching career.\u201d <\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 swimming: Chris Raymond, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy <\/h2>\n

You would think a team with just four athletes would struggle to score well in team competitions. That wasn\u2019t the case with this year\u2019s Coe-Brown swim team. Senior Chris Raymond won both the 100-yard freestyle (50.57 seconds) and 200 freestyle (1:49.79) titles to lead the Bears to third place in D-II.<\/p>\n

That brings Raymond\u2019s total of individual state championships to five out of six individual races he has competed in at states over the past three years.<\/p>\n

Raymond had plenty of support from his brothers, freshman Tucker (100 butterfly and 500 freestyle champion) and sophomore Shea (fourth 50 freestyle, seventh 100 freestyle). The Raymonds\u2019 mother, Karyn, was the team\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

Freshman Braydan Behr joined the Raymond brothers on the second-place 400 freestyle and fourth-place 200 medley relays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really exciting to see all the hard work pay off,\u201d said Karyn Raymond. \u201cI was really proud of each of the boys for all the effort they put into this season.\u201d <\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 swimming: Lily Peterson, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

Peterson has been the cornerstone of the Concord High swim program for her entire career and was the Tide\u2019s only competitor at this year\u2019s D-I championship. Peterson made the most of that opportunity, finishing as the D-I runner-up in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 200 freestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cLily had a great meet,\u201d Concord head coach Bill Quinn said. \u201cShe dropped time in both events. It was a great way to cap her high school career. Lily qualified and scored in two individual events in each of her four years in high school. All she could do was swim her best today, and that is what she did.\u201d <\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 Alpine: Lucas Golden, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

Consistency was hard to find on the blustery day of the D-I boys\u2019 Alpine skiing championships at Crotched Mountain, but Golden, a freshman, put together four solid runs to win both the D-I giant slalom and slalom titles.<\/p>\n

His combined times in the GS (1:12.31) and slalom (1:11.40) topped competitive fields and led Concord to fourth place in the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty amazing as a freshman to win (both disciplines),\u201d said Concord head coach George Golden, who is also Lucas\u2019 father. \u201cHe skied four unbelievable runs; I\u2019m really proud of him. They were two challenging courses that they set today and you really had to be on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Golden went on to finish seventh in the slalom and eighth in the GS at the Meet of Champions against the top competitors from all four NHIAA divisions.<\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 Alpine: Ella Stevens, Belmont High School <\/h2>\n

Stevens is only a freshman, but she made a huge impression on the Division III skiing community, winning both the slalom (1:13.56) and giant slalom (1:18.17) titles at Gunstock as Belmont finished sixth as a team.<\/p>\n

Stevens held off a deep field that included several talented Hopkinton skiers, namely Marcella Guadagno, who finished as the runner-up in both events. Stevens also finished seventh in the GS and 12th in the slalom at the Meet of Champions, the fastest Capital Area competitor in both disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cElla has been consistently fast throughout the season, and it was great to see it pay off today at the state championships,\u201d Belmont head coach Kevin Charleston said. \u201cElla is a team player, and watching her celebrate with her teammates was awesome. She needed to ski aggressively and take chances, as Marcella was right on her heels all day long. Both girls performed great today.\u201d <\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 Nordic: Tyler Watt, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

A former CHS athlete, graduate and current head coach of the Nordic ski team, Erin Waters has competed with and coached alongside many talented skiers. Watt may be the best of them all.<\/p>\n

Watt led the Crimson Tide to the Division I team title for the second year in a row, winning the D-I freestyle championship, clocking 10:21.0 on the 3.8K course, and finishing second in the classic in 11:01.5 (he swept the individual races last year) and sweeping both disciplines in the N.H. Nordic Coaches Series competition this year against skiers from both NHIAA divisions and private schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyler is certainly, in my memory of Concord High skiing, the best athlete we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Waters said. \u201cProbably one of the best in New England, certainly. He\u2019s a phenomenal athlete.\u201d <\/p>\n

Watt has competed on a regional and national level, representing New Hampshire at Easterns in past seasons and competing at Junior Nationals in each of the past two years, but the senior has always made his time in a Crimson Tide uniform a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a phenomenal skier, teammate and captain for those (four) years,\u201d Waters said. \u201cThis felt like a culmination of all that. He\u2019s done things on a larger stage out of state. He cares a lot about high school skiing, he cares a lot about this team and gives it his all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 Nordic: Frances Lesser, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

Lesser has always been a strong skier and key contributor to the Tide\u2019s Nordic ski program, but she took her success to another level this year. A junior, she won the D-I classic race (3.8K time of 13:54.5, 51 seconds faster than the runner-up) and finished third in the freestyle to lead the Tide girls to the runner-up spot at the D-I championships.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Lesser) found a whole new gear today,\u201d Waters said at the championships. \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting for it to come out all season and it came out today. The conditions today served her well. She\u2019s super strong and has a ton of endurance.\u201d <\/p>\n

The interval-start format of the championship races, as opposed to the typical mass start that you see in races in most other sports, meant that individual places couldn\u2019t be determined until all skiers had completed the course. But Lesser skied with so much strength and confidence, Waters knew she was watching something special.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust watching her ski, even without seeing the results, it felt like she had won,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n

Boys\u2019 indoor track: Jamie Lano, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy <\/h2>\n

If the Bears were going to defend their D-II crown, the Coe-Brown track team would need its top athletes to step up, and that\u2019s exactly what Lano did. Lano, a senior, won the 3,000-meter (8:48.38) and the 1,500 (4:09.79) titles, finished second in the 1,000 and ran the anchor leg of the fourth-place 4×400-meter relay to secure back-to-back championships for the Bears at Plymouth State University.<\/p>\n

Lano was responsible for 29 of Coe-Brown\u2019s 54 points in the championship effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew going into the 3,000 that it was a race he could control, more than the other two races,\u201d Coe-Brown head coach Dave Zink said. \u201cHe was very comfortable in that 3,000. The recovery between the 3,000 and 1,000 wasn\u2019t really in question. It was between the 1,000 and the 1,500 that was the question mark about how he could recover from that. But he knew the team rested on his shoulders. \u2026 He brought his \u2018A\u2019 game.\u201d <\/p>\n

The only individual race that Lano didn\u2019t win was a photo finish, losing by just .09 seconds to Hanover\u2019s Lucian Gleiser (2:27.62). Both runners crushed the previous D-II record of 2:32.40. <\/p>\n

Lano, who was ranked as high as third in the nation in the 1,000, finished fourth in New Englands in that event.<\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 indoor track: Ella Goulas, Concord High School <\/h2>\n

Goulas won the high jump title at the D-I championships clearing 5-4 and was responsible for half of Concord\u2019s points in its seventh-place finish to earn the Monitor<\/em>\u2019s selection for the best girls\u2019 track and field athlete in the Capital area. <\/p>\n

She was consistently the top scorer for the Crimson Tide throughout the regular season, entering the championship meet as the top seed in the high jump (with a season-best height of 5-5) and a No. 6 seed in the long jump.<\/p>\n

Goulas cleared 5-3 at New England\u2019s to finish 10th, the top finish by a New Hampshire athlete in the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cElla only started high jumping last winter, so her ability to get this, this fast, is pretty rare,\u201d Concord head coach Hayden Daly said. \u201cShe has a great mindset for jumping. If she misses a height, she has the mindset to forget about that mistake and focus on fixing it. It will be exciting to see what happens this spring when she gets a chance to jump several times a week.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With last Sunday\u2019s Division II girls\u2019 basketball championship wrapping up the winter sports season for area teams, the Monitor would like to highlight top athletes from the Concord region. It was another strong season for area programs. In boys\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":12222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff, and [Author id=135]Dan Attorri[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533,551],"class_list":["post-12221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43153017-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12223,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions\/12223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}