It was a year of near-misses and so-closes on the 2007 Bedford sports landscape, though there were a few spot-ons mixed in.

While dozens of local teams and individuals competed for the top prize in their respective class and/or division, from the youth level through high school and sometimes beyond, many went home empty handed.

The list included the Bedford Little League 11- and 12- year-old baseball all-stars, the West boys and girls tennis teams, and the West and Bedford- heavy Bishop Guertin gridiron gangs.

Still, there were many memorable moments, along with a few pieces of precious hardware that highlighted the year for a town known for producing successful athletes.

The Bedford Jaguars cheerleading program, for instance, sent two teams to nationals. Both returned champions.

After five years of regular-season titles and second-place finishes, the McKelvie golf team, led by Jake Nutter and Joe Angelini – who guaranteed a championship a year earlier – followed through and put an exclamation point at the end of an exciting run.

West “schussed” the competition earlier in the year by winning an Alpine skiing championship.

While most Bedford High School teams experienced growing pains when the school opened just in time for the fall sports season, the golf and girls soccer teams defied all odds and reached the Class I playoffs, rostered only with freshmen and sophomores.

Winter

Skiing
Top-10 finishes in both slalom and giant slalom from Leah McGinley and Stephanie Siegart led the West girls to the Division I state Alpine championship.

The boys finished fourth in their D-I meet.

The girls took second in the Nordic event, as Sam Jean, Becky Herscher, Sarah Moore and Samantha Werner finished in the classical’s top 10.

Again, the boys took fourth. Kenneth Hallenbeck led West with his freestyle performance.

Wrestling
West’s Mark Watts of Bedford took third place in the 145-pound weight class at the Division I wrestling championship on Feb. 17, earning him a trip to the Meet of Champions, where he finished sixth.

Others reaching the Meet of Champions from West by finishing in the top six at the division meet included Jared Crain, David Lamarche and Caleb Earnshaw.

Crain, a 130-pound sophomore, surprised competitors when he finished fourth at the M of C, just missing a bid for New Englands.

Basketball
Led by several locals, Trinity’s boys basketball team reached the Class L championship game, falling to Salem, 54-51, on a Blue Devils’ buzzer- beater.

The No. 16 West girls lost in the first round of the Class L playoffs to top-seeded Timberlane, 53-36.

Spirit
After finishing second at the Kiwanis competition on Jan. 20, the West cheerleading team finished eighth at states, in the process bidding farewell to eight-year coach Sherri Reinfurt.

“This year was more special because we knew it was our last for us and coach,” said senior co-captain Hayley Mc- Donough. “We’ve had some great finishes too (two second place finishes and one third place award). Hopefully, whoever takes over next year can step in and fill coach’s shoes, but it’ll be hard.”

Hockey
Bedford’s Zach Musgrave helped Bishop Guertin win the state championship by assisting on both the Cardinals’ goals in a 2-1 victory against Bishop Brady.

“I’m just on cloud nine right now,” said Musgrave, a West transfer. “It’s really just unbelievable.”

Indoor track and field Behind stellar athletic achievements from Julianne Quinn and Kristin Johnson, West High School finished fifth at the Class L indoor track championships.

Quinn broke two of her own records by finishing the 1,000- meter run in 3 minutes, 1.72 seconds and the 1,500 in 4:53.32. She finished second in both. Johnson, like her teammate, finished runner-up in her best event, the 3,000 meter run, with a time of 11:00.37.

Spring

Tennis
Manchester West failed to dethrone perennial tennis superpower Concord, losing 5-2 and settling for the consolation plaque.

The Blue Knights girls team fell in the Class L semifinals to city rival Central, 7-2.

But Derryfield School won its fifth-straight boys state championship, crushing topranked Berlin, 8-1.

“The more you do something, the more comfortable you are doing it,” said Cougars coach Bruce Berk. “So they’ve been there, they’ve played in the finals before and have confidence because of that.

When kids compete, because they’re kids, all you can do is ask them to play close to their potential. If they can play better in the tournament, that’s what I hope for.”

In the Class M-S girls title game, Derryfield was edged by Gilford, 5-4.

Golf
On June 11, McKelvie won its first Tri-County golf championship, shooting a three-man team score of 125 behind Jake Nutter, who carded a nine-hole 40, one stroke off the individual record; Joe Angelini, who fired a 42, good for second individually; and Russell Caruana, who took fourth with 43.

“It was simple. We learned to hit the ball a lot longer and a lot straighter,” said Angelini of his team’s dedication and additional course time prior to the 2007 spring golf season. “The big thing, for us, was winning it as the last team at McKelvie (which stopped housing middle schoolers at the end of the 2006-’07 school year).”

Baseball
A Derryfield squad made up of locals reached the championship game as the Class S No. 10 seed. Though DS fell to Lisbon, 7-2, coach Jeff Hastings took pride in the Cougars’ improbable run.

“The team definitely thrives in the underdog mentality,” he said. “I talked it up a little bit because I wanted the guys to be loose, to realize all the pressure was on Lisbon … No one, except us, expected anything out of the 10 seed.”

Thirteenth-seeded Trinity had similar success with local athletes, reaching the Class L final before losing to Merrimack, 7-2.

“No one thought we’d even be here,” said sophomore starting pitcher Sean Lyons of Bedford.

“We knew we had the potential to win this. We knew we were capable of proving everyone wrong.”

Track and field
Though West’s Russell Johnson finished eighth in the Class L championship, his personalbest time of 4 minutes, 32.29 seconds in the 1,600-meter run still qualified him for the Meet of Champions because the finish was one of the next four best times among the four New Hampshire classes – L, I, M and S.

Elias Grijalva also advanced to the state meet, recording West’s lone team point by placing sixth in the 400-meter dash.

For the West girls track and field team, which placed 12th in Class L, Kristin Johnson came in third and Kelsey Hunt finished fifth in the 3,200-meter run, Julianne Quinn took fifth place in the 1,600, and the foursome of Quinn, Brittany Frazier, Kay Penny and Haley Lydstone finished fourth in the 4 X 400-meter relay.

Summer

Little League/Babe Ruth baseball and softball
After beating Goffstown in the winners bracket semifinals, 5-1, the Bedford 11- and 12-year-old Little League allstar team was mercy-ruled in a 16-6 setback against Manchester North.

The team, however, earned a rematch by beating up Salem American, 14-2, in the losers bracket final, but ultimately was defeated by North again, 12-3, in the District 1 championship.

“Obviously, to get this far is a reward for how hard they play and how proud I am of them,” said manager Tony Spagnuolo. “Unfortunately, we met a team equal to or even better than us.

I wish we’d have put up more runs because I know we can, but that’s not to take away from the tournament we’ve had.”

The 14U Bedford Hornets softball team won the state American Softball Association tournament and New Englands and advanced to the Eastern national tournament and PONY national tournament.

“It sounds so cool to say you’re going to be pitching in a national tournament,” said Bedford’s Rachael Morgan.

“And we know there are going to be teams that bring some crazy skills. But I know I’ll have a good time because I’ve got a bunch of girls who’ve been together for awhile now, and that’ll make a difference.”

The Bedford Hornets 12U softball team placed third in the ASA tournament and second in the New England competition, earning a trip to Ohio to compete in the national championship.

Granite State Senior Games Bedford’s Ron Coble finished first in the 70- to 74-yearold pistol shoot.

Lisa Maronski won five gold medals and a silver in the 55- to 59-year-old swim meet. She finished first in her age group in the 200-yard backstroke, 100 back, 50-yard freestyle, 100 free and 50 back, and second in the 50-yard breaststroke.

Arlene Dupuis won a gold medal in the 50 breaststroke, silver medals in the 100 breaststroke and 50 back, and a bronze in the 100 back.

In track and field, Dupuis won gold in the long jump and shot put and placed second in discus.

West High School coach and New Boston resident Lee Hess recovered from a 25-foot ladder fall to win the 50-meter, 100-meter and 200-meter dashes in the 55- to 59-year-old division.

Swimming
After finishing the regular season 5-0, the Bedford Barracudas swim team captured second place, behind rival Seacoast Swimming School, in the Granite State Swimming Association championship.

Mountain biking Bedford’s Erik Gosselin won first place at the Dual Slalom USSSA Cycling Mountain Bike championships.

Fall

Cheerleading
The Bedford Jaguars AYF Junior Midget and Midget cheerleaders traveled to the national championships in Orlando, Fla. Both returned to the Granite State as the best in the country.

“It’s really funny because a lot of squads work really hard to get to the national stage, yet only one team is blessed enough to walk out with the first-place trophies,” said Mike Shannon, the Jr. Midgets head coach and program’s spirit coordinator.

“It’s fantastic to win, but more importantly, it’s great to see these girls step up to the challenges in front of them and learn to work as a team.”

The Bedford Junior Bulldogs Pee Wee spirit squad won the New Hampshire Pop Warner state championship.

Soccer
As if winning the first game ever played at Bedford High School’s new stadium wasn’t enough – a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over 2006 quarterfinalist Milford – the inaugural version of the Bedford girls soccer team reached the postseason.

“It’s a tribute to how hard they worked all season,” said head coach Michelle Winning. “My team never gave up, and even the games we lost, we were right there competing with older kids. It was a great step to get in and see what the tournament is all about and have that experience of being in the playoffs. They definitely earned being there.”

Beating 9-7 Laconia 1-0 in the season finale to reach the tournament, the Lady Bulldogs were stopped in the Class I first round against top-seeded Hollis- Brookline, 3-0.

The West boys team, which came back from a two-goal second- half deficit to beat Goffstown in double overtime in the Class L first round, lost to defending champ Exeter in the quarterfinals, 3-1.

The seventh-seeded Lady Blue Knights were upset, 1-0, by No. 10 Alvirne in the first round, ending the season 8-7- 1. The season included wins against the playoffs’ No. 4 and 5 seeds, Merrimack and Memorial.

Football
After going to Salem and pulling off a come-from-behind 17-14 upset against the Blue Devils in the regular-season finale, West bowed out in the Division I first round against three-time defending state champ Pinkerton Academy, 34-7.

Two week later, however, West once again came back to win a big game, this time against rival Central in the Manchester Turkey Bowl. West scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win the Queen City championship, 19- 13, and avenge a 28-16 midseason setback to the Little Green.

“We made the playoffs, and we obviously hoped for a state championship, but if we didn’t get that, the city championship is the next best thing,” said West coach Travis Cote.

Three-time defending state champion Bishop Guertin, featuring more than 10 Bedford players, was upset in the Division- II title game against fellow power Exeter, 14-13. BG coaches and players questioned the officiating, including a pass interference call on a critical 4th-and-9 in Guertin territory. The Blue Hawks scored the go-ahead touchdown on the late-fourth-quarter drive.

At the youth level, the Bedford Junior Bulldogs produced a state champion when the Jr. Pee Wee silver squad beat the Bulldogs’ red squad for the Pop Warner state crown.

The Bedford Jaguars produced two American Youth Football state champs – the Jr. Pee Wees and the Midgets.

Golf
West High School, which finished No. 1 in the regular season, came in fourth in Class L, and Bedford capped its first season with a fifth-place finish at the Class I meet.

For the Blue Knights, Kyle Badger turned in an 18-hole score of 68, while Jake Nutter led the Bulldogs with a 77. In the individual tournament, Badger fell one shot short of Class L bragging rights, carding a two-day 141, and Nutter finished fifth in Class I, firing a 153.

Crew
Derryfield School won five medals in eight races at the 2007 Amoskeag Rowing Club New Hampshire State Championship Regatta. The men’s junior- novice-four won gold, and the men’s junior-four teams A and B finished tied for second. The women’s junior-novicefour placed second, and the women’s junior-four finished third.

Field hockey
Derryfield School, featuring players from Hooksett, Bedford, Hopkinton and Windham, finished the season undefeated and won the Class M-S state title on Oct. 28. The crown is Derryfield’s first in the sport in more than 20 years.

“It’s tough for us because we’re a Class S school, so … we’re always playing teams that are twice our size,” said coach Lenny McCaigue. “To win it is just a dream come true for us.”