Athlete of the Month: Bedford's Scott jumped into history books

Mar. 28—Anika Scott's feat last month was Beamonesque.

Bob Beamon's world-record- setting long jump at the 1968 Olympics created an adjective — one that perfectly describes the record Scott, a Bedford High School junior, set in the same event at the NHIAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 11.

Representing the U.S., Beamon won the long jump at the Mexico City Summer Games with his world-record leap of 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches, surpassing the previous mark by 21 inches.

Accomplishments similarly remarkable to his became known as "Beamonesque."

Scott won the long jump last month at Dartmouth College with her distance of 20 feet, 3 1/4 inches. She broke the record of 18-6 1/4 , set by Exeter's Hillary Holmes in 2012, by a Beamonesque distance: 21 inches.

Paired with a Division I-record time to win the 55-meter hurdles, the jump earned Scott the February New Hampshire Union Leader Apple Therapy Services/Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center/Express MED Athlete of the Month award from the Union Leader Board of Judges.

"I was expecting to be in the 19-foot range," Scott told the Union Leader at the indoor championships. "Honestly I was just incredibly shocked."

Scott was not the only surprised Bulldog.

Bedford assistant coach Emily Blahnik, who originally convinced Scott to try the long jump, said she thought Scott could set the record that day — but not by that great a distance.

"No idea it was going to be 20 feet, 3 inches," Blahnik told the Union Leader, "but she was looking good, her speed's up, she has her mechanics down and she's a hard worker."

Before she started competing in long jump, Scott had always been a hurdler.

While not as Beamonesque, Scott also won the 55-meter hurdles at the meet with her Division I-record time of 8.07 seconds. Her mark was .14 of a second faster than the previous record of 8.21, set by Bishop Guertin's Betsy Garnick in 2012.

Scott was .06 of a second shy of tying the state record in the event (8.01), which Garnick set in 2013.

Alongside her record-setting first-place finishes, Scott also took third in the 300-meter dash with a time of 41.98 seconds and helped Bedford place fourth in the 4-by-200-meter relay with a mark of 1:50.04.

Scott's efforts helped Bedford capture the girls team championship with 74 total points. Exeter (54 points) and Pinkerton Academy (52 points) rounded out the top three.

Other athletes considered for the February honor were Manchester Central swimmer Alexei Avakov, Profile School alpine skier Makenna Price, Hanover High School track runner Lucian Gleiser, Hanover High School girls hockey player Maeve Lee, Pinkerton Academy girls basketball player Liz Lavoie and Rivier University women's basketball player Lyric Grumblatt.

Avakov, a senior at The Founders Academy who swims for Manchester Central during the NHIAA season, set a state and pool record when he won the 100 breaststroke in an All-American time of 54.4 seconds and set a pool record when he won the 200 individual medley in 55.24 seconds at the NHIAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of New Hampshire's Swasey Pool last month.

Price, a junior, won both the slalom and giant slalom to help Profile win the NHIAA Division IV championship and won the slalom at the NHIAA Meet of Champions in February.

Gleiser, a senior at Hanover, won the boys 1,000-meter run at the NHIAA Division II championships last month with a division-record time of 2:27.62.

Lee, a senior forward, recorded 20 points on 11 goals and nine assists over a 6-0-1 end to the NHIAA regular season last month for Hanover.

Lavoie, a senior, averaged 18.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.2 steals over a 5-1 end to the NHIAA Division I regular season for Pinkerton.

Grumblatt, a senior from Manchester, averaged 29.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.6 steals over a 3-4 ending to the NCAA Division III season for Rivier.

Previous 2024 winner: January, Zach James, Pelham (basketball).

To submit a nomination for future Athlete of the Month consideration, email the Union Leader Sports Department at sports@unionleader.com and enter "Athlete of the Month" in the subject line.