Another plaque and another banner brought home by the Kingswood Girls' Nordic Ski Team!  Today the girls won the NH D2 Runner-Up Award.  Kennett placed 7 racers in the top 10 stealing first place.  Kingswood was the only other team to have more than 4 racers in the top 20.  The Knights were runner-ups in both the morning classical race and the afternoon freestyle race.  Sarah Peternel led the way placing 10th in the classical and 5th in the skate.  This qualified her for the Meet of Champions.  In classical Captain Emma Bellefleur placed 12th, Becky Peternel placed 16th and Sarah Bean finished the scoring in 17th place.  In freestyle Becky Peternel placed 14th,  Emma Bellefleur placed 15th, and Sarah Bellefleur finished the scoring in 16th place.  Congratulations to the Girls Nordic Team!   Sarah Bellefleur will be competing as a member of the elite NH all state U16 team next weekend.  The following weekend Sarah Peternel and Mary Kretchmer will be competing as members of the elite all state NH Eastern High School Team.  Mary Kretchmer missed the state meet because she was competing in the Junior Nationals at Lake Placid in New York.

The Kingswood Girls Nordic Team has won the Lakes and Mountains Regional Championship.  Eight schools competed for the title:  Kennett was second, White Mountains third, InterLakes fourth, Moultonboro Academy fifth, Plymouth sixth, Profile seventh, and Gilford Eighth.  Mary Kretchmer placed first out of 76 racers.  Sarah Peternel placed fourth.  Becky Peternel placed eighth and Emma Bellefleur placed tenth, all four Kingswood scorers in the top 10!  Sarah Bellefleur finished in 13th, Sarah Bean in 16th, Mary Peternel in 19th, Allsion Bean in 22nd, Maddie Rosiak in 41st and Sarah Hotchkiss in 51st.

      Congratulations to the Kingswood girls nordic ski racing team for taking third place out of all public and NHIAA private schools in the state when the two NH coaches series races were combined (Kennett first, Concord  second)       Congratulations to Mary Kretchmer for being named to the elite NH Eastern High School team.  She was first at Gunstock and 4th at Plymouth (1st of nhiaa racers)      Congratulations to Sarah Peternel and Sarah Bellefleur. Both got named to the elite NH U 16 team      At the Gunstock classical NH Series #1 the Kingswood Girls got 90 points for third place out of all NHIAA high schools.  At the Plymouth freestyle NH Series #2 Kingswood got 4th place with 115 points after Fall Mountain.  With this scoring a low score is better.  Kingswood had a combined 205 to Fall Mountain's combined of 237 putting Kingswood clearly in third overall (and second out of all division 2 schools).  Kennett girls and Kennett boys won first place.      Mary Kretchmer placed 4th out of 141 A racers at the Plymouth race.  She was first for racers racing for NHIAA schools with her time of 17:54.  Next for Kingswood was Sarah Peternel (22nd in 19:13).  Sister Becky Peternel was next for the Knights (65th in 21:33).  Also scoring for the Knights was Sarah Bean (67th in 21:42).  Also finishing in the A race were  Sarah Bellefleur (72nd in 21:50), Allison Bean (78th in 22:04), Mary Peternel (85th in 22:40), Sarah Huckman (99th in 23:12), and Emma Bellefleur (106th in 23:32).  The B race was on the same course in the afternoon.  Maddie Rosiak was 11th of 70 B racers in 24:05.  Sarah Hotchkiss came in 26th in 26:05.      For the high school boys Jim Huckman was first for the Knights (73rd of 141 A racers in 19:00).  Axel Plache placed second for the team (128th in 21:27).  Adam Richardson was 132nd in 21:46.  The high school boys did not have a fourth finisher for a team score.      For the middle school girls Ginger Plache placed 15th out of 80 finishers in 23:28.        For the middle school boys David Sandoval was recognized for being #4 in the classical and #10 in the freestyle (skate ski) race.  He finished the skate in 20:30.  Tim Huckman placed 14th of the 74 finishers in 21:30.  Jackson Boudman placed 31st in 24:22.  Robbie Hotchkiss placed 48th in 27:20.      All of the race times can be found at    http://barttiming.com/XCski/nhnca17.htm   The final regular season high school meet will be the lakes and mountains regional high school (only) championship at Great Glen on Wednesday, February 22nd at 2:30 p.m.   On Friday, February 24th the middle school state championship will be held at the Sandwich Fairgrounds.   On Tuesday, March 7th the division 2 high school state meet will be held at the Great Glen Trails.    

The Knight Girls Team placed 2nd (to Kennett) out of 8 high schools competing.   The race was a skate sprint.  One fourth of those racing in the first round were given the chance to compete in the placement round.    One third of the remaining three quarters of the racers qualified during the second sprint.  Only those racers who qualified were invited to compete in the placement round.   Mary Kretchmer and Zoe McKinney came in together to tie for first. Emma Bellefleur placed 7th.  Sarah Peternel placed 9th.  Sarah Bellefleur finished the scoring for the team with her 13th place.  Also finishing for the Kingswood girls were Becky Peternel (20th), Sarah Bean (21st), Allison Bean (25th), Mary Peternel (32nd) and Sarah Huckman (33rd).   The high school boys came in very close to each other with Axel Plache and Adam Richardson tying for 24th and Jim Huckman in 26th.     For the middle school race, David Sandoval was again best for the Knights with a 4th place finish.  Ginger Plache came in 12th.  Tim Huckman came in 16th of the 24 racers who qualified for this round.  Kingswood came in 4th place.  There were 6 middle schools competing.

Mary Kretchmer came in first out of 148 high school A racers from NH public and private schools that have nordic teams at the first 2017 NH Series Race at Gunstock Nordic Center today.  She finished the classical course in 13:23.  Emma Bellefleur was second for the Knights in 16:52 (39th).  Sarah Peternel came in 48th in 17:13.  Sarah Bean finished the scoring for the team in 4th place in 50th place.  Also finishing for the high school girls were Sarah Bellefleur (51st, 17:23), Becky Peternel (54th, 17:32), Sarah Huckman (68th, 18:06), Mary Peternel (103rd, 19:24), and Allison Bean (107th, 19:32).  Also finishing in the B race were Maddie Rosiak in 19:47, Hannah Demain in 22:08, and Sarah Hotchkiss in 22:23.  (The B race times are unofficial). First for the Kingswood A boys was Jim Huckman (80th, 15:05).  Adam Richardson finished in 106th (15:59) and Axel Plache finished in 115th (16:21).   There were no B racers for the Kingswood boys.   David Sandoval finished 5th out of 154 middle school boys with a time of 16:13.  Tim Huckman was next for the Kingswood Middle School boys (62nd, 20:57).  Jackson Boudman was next (71st, 21:27) and Robbie Hotchkiss finished in 122nd place in 35:16.   Ginger Plache was the only Kingswood Middle School Girl racing.  Her unofficial time for the course was 19:16.   The Knights will host a skate sprint at Abenaki Monday February 6th beginning at 2:30 p.m.  7 high schools and 6 middle schools will be racing.   Tom Merrell Nordic Knights   I expect the unofficial times to be updated at the following site: http://barttiming.com/XCski/nhnca17.htm

The Kingswood  high school girls nordic team (381 points) beat Hanover (355 points) and Plymouth (354 points) but lost to Kennett (390 points) at the classical race at Whitaker Woods on February 1st hosted by Kennett.   Mary Kretchmer earned 100 points for the team with her first place finish out of 52 finishers completing the 4.5 km course in 17:45.   The next 7 finishers were from Kennett.   Becky Peternel placed 9th in 22:24.  Sarah Bean placed 11th in 22:41.  Sarah Peternel finished the scoring for the Knights in 13th place in 23:01.   Also finishing for the Lady Knights were Emma Bellefleur 14th in 23:03, Sarah Huckman 15th in 23:10, Sarah Bellefleur 18th in 23:19, Mary Peternel 26th in 24:53, Allison Bean 27th in 25:16, Maddie Rosiak 35th in 27:06, Sarah Hotchkiss 42nd in 28:55 and Hannah Demain 49th in 34:07.   For the High school boys, Jim Huckman was 14th of 47 finishers in  19:43.  Axel Plache was 23rd in 20:59.  Adam Richardson placed 27th in 21:19.   The Knights will be at the classical NH Series at Gunstock on Saturday, February 4th.  The team will host a home meet at Abenaki on Monday, February 6th.  That race will be a 3 round skate sprint beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Congratulations to the Girls Varsity Nordic Team who scored 374 points on Thursday, January 19th, at the 5.2 kilometer skate meet at Abenaki. The girls team beat  Lebanon (363 points), Plymouth (345 points) and Farmington (95 points).  The Kingswood team was second to Kennett (387 points).   Sarah Peternel placed 2nd out of 55 finishers followed by Emma Bellefleur in 7th, Becky Peternel in 10th, and Sarah Bellefleur in 11th.   Also finishing for the Knights were Sarah Bean in 16th, Sarah Huckman in 17th, Mary Peternel in 20th, Allison Bean in 23rd, Maddie Rosiak in 37th, Sarah Hotchkiss in 48th, and Hannah Demain in 52nd place.   Mary Kretchmer was ill and did not compete.   For the high school boys, the Knights with 348 points were just edged by Lebanon with 355 and were also behind Plymouth with 374 and Kennett with 392.   Jim Huckman finished first for the Knights in 17th place out of 44 finishers.  He was followed closely by teammates Wyatt Pooler 18th, Adam Richardson (22nd) and Axel Plache (24th).   For the coed middle school racer Kingswood lost by 1 point to Plymouth (383 to 382).  Farmington had 99 points.   David Sandoval won the race (1st place out of 13 finishers).  Tim Huckman took 4th place, Ginger Plache took 8th place.  Jackson Boudman came in 9th place.

Mary Kretchmer raced to first out of 35 racers.  Sarah Peternel raced to 6th place.  Sarah Bean came in 10th.  Also scoring was Sarah Bellefleur in 12th place.   This was a freestyle race hosted by Kennett.  The Nordic Knights came in second to Kennett. The boys took 17th, 18th, 19th and 28th (Adam Richardson, Jim Huckman, Axel Plache, and Wyatt Pooler).

Mary Kretchmer placed first of 38 racers at the freestyle race hosted by Lebanon held at The Plainfield School.  Sarah Peternel was third.  Emma Bellefleur was seventh.   Sarah Bellefleur was eighth.  The Nordic Knights won first place.