BHS seniors Seth Wyatt and Georgi Fischer join the Wildcats after strong finishes at U.S. Junior Nationals in Truckee.
BOZEMAN, Mont. – Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) Nordic skiers Georgianna Fischer and Seth Wyatt, who both notched top-20 finishes at the Junior National Cross Country Ski Championships in March in California, have committed to ski at University of New Hampshire next year.
Fischer, 17 and a senior at Bozeman High School, has competed across the nation and in Canada in her four years with BSF’s Nordic Competitive Team. She finished 99th out of 171 at the U.S. National Cross Country Championships this January in Houghton, Michigan, skiing against the best collegiate and senior women in the United States and Canada, including several current and former members of the U.S. Ski Team.
“I’m looking forward to being part of a really competitive college team,” Fischer said. “It’s a great school with great opportunities – for skiing, research, and scholarship. I can’t wait.”
Both Fischer and Wyatt qualified for all of the junior national cross-country ski competitions –an annual event featuring 400 of the best skiers under the age of 20 in the United States – for which they were eligible. Both consistently finished in the top 50 all four years of high school.
Fischer’s best finish came this year at the coronavirus-shortened races in Truckee, Calif., where she finished 19th among 17- and 18-year-olds in the skate sprint competition.
She is carrying a 4.1 weighted GPA and is ranked 38th out of 474 seniors at BHS. She plans to study environmental science at UNH, focusing on climate change.
Wyatt, 18 and a senior at BHS, finished 12th among 18- and 19-year-olds in the skate sprint competition at Truckee and 15th in the classic distance. His career at BSF includes multiple podiums in races against top skiers from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.
Wyatt is graduating with a 3.8 GPA from BHS and plans to study Studio Art at UNH.
“Skiing for Coach Schwartz and the UNH Wildcats was my first choice,” Wyatt said. “I’m excited to ski with my former teammate Andrew Meyer again and to check out the racing scene back East. I really appreciate the support of my coaches - both in Bozeman and across the Intermountain Division - my teachers and my family for helping me reach my goal.”
The University of New Hampshire Wildcats are a Division 1 school based in Durham, N.H., led by Coach Cory Schwartz. The team sent four skiers to the NCAA Cross Country Ski Championships held at Bozeman’s Crosscut Mountain Sports Center this year.
Other Bozemanites who have skied for UNH include former BSF standouts Andrew Meyer and Lizzie Gill, BSF Nordic Program Director Andrew Morehouse, US Ski Team wax technician Tim Baucom, and former BSF Nordic Competitive coach Anya Bean.
“I’m proud of the effort Georgi and Seth put into the season – and their high school careers,” Morehouse said. “They both came into the year with ambitious goals and showed impressive determination and grit in achieving them.”
“Coach Schwartz attracts top skiers from across the nation and always fields a strong team,” Morehouse added. “Georgi and Seth should fit right in and make an immediate impact.”
Other graduating members BSF’s Competitive Nordic Team include Liam Rasch, who will attend Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. but will not ski; and Aidan Van Eerden of Missoula, who hopes to continue ski racing and will attend University of British Columbia at Okanagan.
Rasch, Wyatt and Fischer all came up through the BSF program, starting as elementary school students: Wyatt started as a first-grader, Rasch started in Kindergarten as five-year-old. and Fischer joined as a third-grader after her family moved to Bozeman from Boulder, Colo. in 2010.
Dating back to 1936, Bridger Ski Foundation is a Bozeman-based nonprofit that provides and funds educational and competitive programs for all ages, year round, in Nordic, Alpine, and Freestyle/Freeskiing techniques, as well as grooming 70+km of winter trails for the community.
