From freshmen to seniors, three sports seasons a year, and hundreds of games, matches, and meets our senior athletes are officially finished with their high school careers.

As in years past, the best of the best senior athletes were selected as candidates for the BASD ECHO’s Senior Athlete of the Year award.

Six boys and six girls were added to a ballot circulated to all coaches, administration, and select teachers.

After the voting seniors Eli Bechdel and Lizzy Michael were selected as the senior athletes of the year.

The boys’ campaign had Bechdel as a clear winner, but honorable mention to Evan Baker and Dom Bumblis who also earned votes.

The girls were another story. All six girls who were on the ballot earned at least one vote with Michael winning by a small margin.

Honorable mention goes to Chloe List as well as Madeline Boser and Chloe Desanzo who tied for third.

This close race is a testament to the hard work these ladies have put in and how they all are respected among the Beaver Area staff.

Michael has been a well-rounded athlete and scholar for all of her four years at Beaver Area High School.

She has been on the swim and dive team and track and field team for four years, as well as competing in gymnastics through her sophomore year.

Michael prioritized and flourished in pole vaulting throughout her athletic career.

Last year she was the WPIAL champion in pole vaulting as well as earning fourth place this year.

Michael is the current school, county, and MAC record holder; this record is currently teetering with place 1-3 at WPIALs coming from Beaver County, so Michael is looking to have strong personal records at the state championships May 24.

She was a state qualifier in the pole vault in both her junior and senior years.

Michael has chosen to continue her pole vaulting career at James Madison University, majoring in statistics.

She was a captain of the 2024 track and field team.

Along with track, Michael excelled in diving because of the sport’s similarities to pole vault.

Michael placed fourth at MACs, seventh in the WPIAL, and twelfth at states for diving.

She was also a diving captain for both her junior and senior years.

Outside of sports, Michael is an AP student, high honor roll, and top ten of her class.

Bechdel had a majority win for the award with two-thirds of the votes.

Bechdel has been a key member of the cross country and track and field teams for four years. He also was a member of the soccer team freshman and sophomore years and a member of the swim team junior and senior years.

Bechdel has been a distance runner for the Bobcats specializing in the one and two-mile runs where he is the current school record holder in both events.

He is third in the WPIAL in the one-mile run and sixth place in the two-mile.

Bechdel also placed sixteenth in the state at the cross-country state championships.

He was also a member of the 2023 cross-country MAC team champions, team WPIAL runner ups, and the cross-country team earning fourth in the state.

Outside of running, Bechdel was a member of the 2022 WPIAL runner-up soccer team and a member of the B-relay for the men’s relay team.

Bechdel has decided to continue his track career at Eastern Michigan University while majoring in business.

Both Bechdel and Michael have kept 3.75 or above GPAs throughout their high school careers to both be named scholar-athletes.

Congratulations to this year’s honored athletes!