The 2025-26 winter showed how hard it is to win. From soaring successes to crushing defeats, many local athletes proved they had the drive to win.
Here’s the list of Capital region student-athletes who made history, who exemplified determination and leadership and who left it all on the line, from each sport. Committing to their craft and showcasing their talent was what they did best.
These are the Concord Monitor Players of the Season for the 2025-2026 winter season.
Girls’ Ice Hockey: Brooke Nelson, Concord
Brooke Nelson had a junior year marked by consistency and resilience. She led the Concord Crimson Tide through a tumultuous year with a first-round exit in the playoffs.
Nelson, an All-State second team selection, was the team’s leading goalscorer for the second consecutive year and reached the 100-point milestone after just 28 total games played for the Crimson Tide.
She showed toughness fighting through injuries this season after becoming the clear target for opposing defenses, all while maintaining steady production, consistently dishing out assists and scoring at will.
Boys’ Ice Hockey: Nolan Walsh, Concord
Nolan Walsh dazzled spectators with his stick handling and ability to finish on the wing. He was the Tide’s point leader with 63 points on 34 goals and 29 assists in the span of 23 games.
Walsh emerged last season as an important piece of the rotation of offense, but this year, he proved himself with strong performances night in and night out.
Despite the loss in the state championship, Walsh powered the Tide forward all season and positioned himself among the best players in the state. He earned his Division I Player of the Year Award.
Girls’ Basketball: Emma Smith, Concord Christian Academy
Senior Emma Smith became the first 2000-point scorer in the Capital Region since Concord’s Matt Bonner and Kearsarge’s Steve Lavolpicelo in 1999. She also became just the sixth girl in state history to reach the milestone.
Her career for the Kingsmen was nothing short of exceptional, with three divisional championships and a D-I runner-up finish this season.
She proved to be one of the toughest players to stop on offense because of her shooting, creativity and rebounding ability.
Boys’ Basketball: Eli Whipple, Kearsarge
Whipple’s 39-point performance in the quarterfinals against top-seeded Belmont was surprising to those who had not seen him before.
Looking at Kearsarge’s performances in the regular season, Whipple was consistently pouring in big nights on the scoresheet.
His jumper in the mid-range and three-point line was almost always a clean look after creating separation off the dribble. On the flip side, he was never afraid to drive into the paint against larger defenders.
His high-impact play for the Cougars got them to the semis, and next year, the rising senior will return in hopes of winning it all.
Girls’ Alpine: Marcella Guadagno, Hopkinton
Guadagno became the senior leader the team needed to win the state title.
Guadagno was a consistent leader for a stacked Hopkinton girls’ alpine team that won the Division III title by a sizable margin. She won the individual giant slalom title and placed fourth in the afternoon slalom to guide the team to victory.
Her sixth-place finish in the giant slalom and 10th place in the slalom at the Meet of Champions was just enough to sneak her into the Eastern High School Championships.
At the regional tournament, she placed 10th in the giant slalom, but this time in a much more competitive field of skiers from New Jersey, Michigan, New York and other New England states.
Boys’ Alpine: Lucas Golden, Concord
Lucas Golden qualified for his third consecutive Eastern High School Championship to represent New Hampshire against the best in the northeast.
First, he won both the giant slalom and the slalom titles at the NHIAA Division I boys’ Alpine skiing championships.
Soon after, he had an impressive day at Cannon’s challenging Mittersill course in the Meet of Champions. Golden finished fourth in the slalom and fifth in the giant slalom, behind first place by one second and a few decimals.
Against the best under-18 alpine skiers, he finished 10th in the slalom in one minute and 27.94 seconds and 23rd in the giant slalom. He was one of only four New Hampshire boys to finish in the top 10 in either race, and finished his high school racing career challenging the toughest from Michigan to Maine.
Girls’ Nordic: Mahalie Burdette, Concord
Burdette ran straight into the Nordic season, coming off a strong cross-country fall and performed at the highest level for the Tide.
She placed fifth in classic and sixth in freestyle at the Division I championship, and continued performing well in the Meet of Champions with a second-place finish.
Her performances then led her into the Eastern High School Nordic Championship, where she placed 25th at her fastest in classic among the best under-18 cross country skiers in the northeast and beyond.
Boys’ Nordic: Dean Ayotte, Concord
The Concord boys had a strong season in a closely contested D-I field. He placed fourth in the Division I states’ classic and 19th in freestyle.
Ayotte qualified for the regional championships after a second-place finish in the Meet of Champions.
At regionals, Ayotte finished ninth overall in the boys Nordic skate sprint with a two-minute, 51.46-second push in a large field of 114 competitors.
Ski Jumping: Sebastian Christie, Concord
Although Sebastian Christie was the only local skier to make an appearance at the jumping state championship, he represented the region well with a fourth-place finish.
After a shorter 58-foot jump on his first attempt, Christie bounced back with a 61-foot, 103-point scoring jump. He finished strong with an even better 104.5 point jump to finish just 1.5 points behind Plymouth’s Sebastian Eisenbarth.
Besides proving himself as one of the best young ski jumpers in the state, he recruited new jumpers for the Concord team and was a trailblazer for the sport locally.
Girls’ Wrestling: Madison Beauregard, Concord
Madison Beauregard had an unquestionably dominant season. She won her historic fourth consecutive state championship with a win over Alvirne’s Jillian Boncore in the 185-pound title bout.
Her win made her the eighth wrestler in state history to win four consecutive titles and the first girl to accomplish the feat. Only one other Crimson Tide wrestler, Tyler Saltsman, had done so before.
Her win qualified her for her fourth New England Interscholastic Girls Wrestling Championship, where she finished in third place with a big comeback in the consolation bracket after being upset in the quarterfinals.
She was upset by No. 11 Massachusetts’ sophomore Leanna Watson, and then went on a tear to beat Maine’s Izabella Bertocchi (8-1, Dec.), Connecticut’s Shyann Bryan (6-2, Fall), Massachusetts’ Emma Leonido (4-1, Dec.) and faced Watson for the thrid-place bout, winning 7-2 by decision.
Her third-place finish in 2026 was her third All-New England placement and she became the first Concord wrestler to do so.
Boys’ Wrestling: Maximus Chung, Concord
Max Chung wasn’t the only wrestler to reach 100 wins this season; he was one of five Tide wrestlers to reach 40 wins and he didn’t win a Division I title.
The quiet, mild-mannered Chung, however, did break the single-season win record for the Crimson Tide with 49 and was the only Tide wrestler to win an overall state title at the Meet of Champions.
His three consecutive wins in the MOC against White Mountains’ Alden Willey, Keene’s Ilias Azizeddine and Timberlane’s Colton Seuss put him over the threshold of 48 wins and earned him the title. Most impressively, he continued improving throughout the day at the MOC, first winning 5-4, then 4-1 and decisively, 10-2, in the finals.
Girls’ Swimming: Kylie Cole, Kearsarge
Cole, a sophomore, had a very strong season and end-of-year performance for the Cougars in the Division II State Championship.
She swam a quick 29.25-second freestyle leg in the girls’ 200-yard medley relay alongside teammates Chelsea Snow, Kinsley Monnat and Jersey Vedova to finish sixth. Later in the day, she swam the team’s fastest lap in the 200-yard freestyle relay with 27.78 seconds.
Individually, she swam a blistering 2-minute, 7-second 200-yard freestyle shortly after the first relay to finish second in the state. She finished the day with a fourth-place finish in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke at 1:07.18 seconds.
Boys’ Swimming: Tucker Raymond, Coe-Brown
Tucker Raymond placed in the top two in every single event he swam in during the Division II state meet.
His performances were no surprise after his sophomore season was a big success. He finished his junior season on top of the state in the 100-yard butterfly in 52.87 seconds, beating his seed time and the runner-up by nearly two seconds. He also performed well in the 200 individual medley, just 1.51 seconds behind Souhegan’s Riley Wilson, as he was edged out by fractions of a second in each style.
Raymond also had the fastest laps for his team in the 200-yard medley relay (25.16 seconds) to win the state title and in the 200-yard freestyle relay (22.61 seconds), where the team finished second to Souhegan.
Girls’ Indoor Track: Camden Wilson, Bow
Junior Camden Wilson was one of two local athletes to earn All-New England honors at the 38th Annual New England Interscholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Wilson won the Division II girls’ high jump with a record-tying jump of 5 feet, 4 inches, and cleared 5-5 to claim fifth place in New England. She was the second-best competitor from N.H. in the event.
Boys’ Indoor Track: Gavin Buxton, Bow
Gavin Buxton is fast. The 55-meter dash specialist had an undefeated season in New Hampshire. His first win of the season on Dec. 13 kick-started a rush to the finish that never stopped.
When it mattered most at the Division II championship, he matched his personal record of 6.52 seconds. To finish the season, the senior finished 18th in the dash at the New England Interscholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships.
