Tyler Watt was the fastest middle school Nordic skier in the state last year. Still, Watt didn’t know what to expect this season when he started competing for Concord High as a freshman.
“I didn’t really know how the season was going to go. My goal was to get a foundation and try to work toward winning some bigger races closer to the end of my high school years,” Watt said. “I definitely did not think it was going to go as well as it’s going now.”
It’s going so well because Watt didn’t have to wait to win a big race. Skiing against the best in the state, Watt took first in the boys’ race at Tuesday’s Nordic Meet of Champions at Proctor Academy. He completed the 7.5k skate course in 19:09.6 to finish ahead of Gilford’s Mitchell Townsend, who took second in 19:22.7. The MOC normally consists of two races – a 5k classic and a 5k skate – but this year it was condensed to just one race.
The format may have been different, but the course was familiar. The Crimson Tide competes at Proctor regularly, and that knowledge helped Watt on Tuesday.
“I love the Proctor course, there’s lot of technical hills and cool little areas to push and stuff like that,” Watt said. “We had two races on that exact loop already this year, and that definitely helped a lot, knowing the course and knowing what was coming up, it was perfect.”
Watt’s perfect day also put him ahead of Hanover High brothers Noah (third, 19:22.7) and Simon Phipps (fifth, 19:37.1). Simon finished ahead of Watt in the skate race at last week’s Division I championships, taking first while Watt was third (Noah Phipps was fifth), as Hanover won the title and Concord wound up fifth to see its string of 12-straight D-I titles broken. Those results weren’t entirely surprising since NHIAA Nordic was realigned this year and D-I jumped from six teams to 11, but they still spurred Watt to ski a little faster at the MOC, and he thinks they will also motivate the Tide team to train harder in the offseason.
“I think we’re going to work a lot more next year, not that we didn’t work hard this year, but I think next year we’re going to be even more motivated,” Watt said. “We want to win those races as a team, so we’re going to keep pushing and keep trying to get there.”
Watt is also trying to get somewhere no high school skier has been – across the finish line ahead of Concord coach Sam Evans-Brown. The 35-year-old coach skied for Bates College and still races, and he’s had some skiers from his teams beat him once they went on to college, but never while they were still in high school. Watt heard about this while he was in middle school and immediately told Evans-Brown, “I’m going to beat you.”
It was a bold statement for a 7th grader, but the next year Watt won both NH Coaches Series races against the top middle school skiers in the state, becoming the first Rundlett Middle School student to win a NH Coaches Series event. Plus, he’s the younger brother of Katie Watt, who had led the Concord girls’ Nordic team to D-I titles in 2018, ’19 and ’20. So, Evans-Brown knew Watt was fast, and then he saw just how fast during the first race this season.
“He went out and ripped off something like a 12 flat and I was just stunned,” Evans-Brown said. “So, I waited until the kids left and I went out and skied it myself and I was 30 seconds slower.”
That prompted an increased training regimen for Evans-Brown, who has two young children. The coach practiced with his team when he could, and when he and Watt were in the same race last month, the coach won by five seconds.
“I was running scared,” Evans-Brown laughed. “I mean, it’s been a long time since I was that motivated to race. But he is coming for me. He knows it and I know it.”
Katie Watt finished second in the girls’ race in 21:13.5, finishing behind Gilford’s Catherine Stow (20:12.0). Katherine Gage from The Derryfield School was third in 21:21.3 and Kearsarge’s Molly Ellison finished fourth (21:46.5).
Ava Rothe was the top finisher for the Hopkinton girls’ team, taking sixth in 22:09.2. Hopkinton’sFrancieTrafton (eighth, 22:49.8) also finished in the top 10, while Hannah Bennett (13th), Clara Locke (18th) and Elizabeth Trafton (20th) made for a total of five Hawks inside the top 20. Cate Westbrook (31st) also competed for Hopkinton.
Rachel Pelletier was the only girl representing Bow, and the sophomore finished 11th overall. Kearsarge’s Katelyn Harvey (28th) and KylinFrenkiewich (29th) competed for Kearsarge along with Ellison, and Concord sent Alexis Christie (27th), Maggie Cooper (32nd) and Katherine Martel (36th) to the MOC along with Katie Watt. All of those skiers finished in the top 20 in either the classic or skate race at their respective division championship meets last week.
Back on the boys’ side, Kearsarge’s Steven Williamson (seventh, 20:06.7) was the top local finisher after Tyler Watt. Bow, which finished second at the D-I championships despite being the smallest school in the race, qualified five skiers for the MOC – Michael Pelletier (14th), Oliver Dolcino (20th), Ben Neff (24th), Calen Smith (33rd) and Konrad Kremzner (39th).
Other local finishers in the boys’ race were Concord’s Eben Bragg (16th); Kearsarge’s Evan Pauling (16th) and Andrew Blagden (38th); and Hopkinton’s Matt Clarner (22nd), Michael Eggers-Emerson (27th) and Will Chapin (28th).