Hanover — Rousing applause and a scattering of misty eyes greeted 169 Hanover high graduating seniors on Friday night.

Dressed in maroon caps and gowns, they strode slowly onto the turf athletic field behind the school, as the band, directed by Ian Gollub, played Pomp and Circumstance over and over.

It wasn’t all that long ago that these same graduates broke parents’ hearts toddling off for the first time to the Ray School, Norwich’s Marion Cross or Lyme Elementary, among others.

Graduates were having no teary sentimentality, however. Jubilation reigned, orchestrated by the ebullient Sarah Bozuwa, master of ceremonies from Norwich, who revealed that she is the “17th member of my family to attend Hanover High.”

A crowd of more than 1,000 savored the festivities. Matt Zweeres of the school’s facilities department confirmed the count: 1,400 folding chairs for the audience, 50 for staff and 55 for the band. Graduates sat in the bleachers facing the crowd, as behind them the late afternoon sunlight streamed through the trees.

That provided a perfect backdrop for Moises Celaya, star baseball pitcher turned tenor, and Isabelle Hall, soprano, backed by a stellar quartet; they excited the audience with a flawless rendition of Brand New by Ben Rector.

Featured speaker Harrison Bourne, an English teacher, described events in his life to demonstrate how “assumptions have impacted me in small ways but I ask you to constantly question your own assumptions about the big things: What are my passions? Will this college make me happy? Will a bigger paycheck make me happy?”

He continued: “You can assume ... that other people are acting with good intentions. This perspective will keep you from making your own negative assumptions and becoming cynical. Be generous with others but strive to be critical of your own thinking and re-evaluate it frequently.”

This year’s valedictorians were: Molly Cook, Daphne Friedman, Simon Herron, Sofia Sacerdote, Madeleine Wallace and David Wilson. In recent history, that number was topped in 2010, when seven were selected, according to Cathy Niboli, administrative assistant to the principal.

While most of the graduates plan to disperse soon to college and post-secondary destinations, at least one intends to pursue a lifelong passion. Lincoln Adam, a lanky 18-year-old from Hanover, is taking a gap year to go lobster fishing in Maine, something he has been doing in the summers since he was a young kid.

He saved enough money over the years to buy his own lobster boat, a used, Blue Hill Marine 30-footer with a Deere engine. He named the boat after his older sister — the Kaiya M. He works out of the dock at Swan’s Island near Bar Harbor, Maine.

“I love getting up around 4 a.m., going out maybe 4 miles, working the traps and watching the sun come up over the Atlantic.” he said. After Maine, he plans to spend time with his father, Andrew, who works at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Even though there is a strong Dartmouth tradition in Lincoln’s family (his mother, Sarah Geithner, is a Dartmouth graduate, as is his uncle, former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner) he plans to attend the University of Denver.

Friday marked the end of a week-long celebration for Hanover seniors. It started last Sunday with the 39th annual Baccalaureate in Dartmouth’s Rollins Chapel, later a whitewater rafting trip on Maine’s Kennebec river, Class Day on Thursday and then what promised to be an all-night party in the gym after the graduation ceremony.

Class Day involved a long series of academic, community service and sports awards delivered in the gym over an hour and a half. Bozuwa, who is heading for Colby College, was one of the top recipients along with Sofia Sacerdote, of Hanover; she has been accepted into Brown University’s unique eight-year program in liberal medical education.

Caleb Putnam, a football stalwart from Cornish, received the athlete of the year award. He is going to the University of New Hampshire. Twin brother Nick Putnam, also a football player, is going to Plymouth State. They come from a family of “triple doubles” — three sets of twins, featured several years ago in the Supernanny television program. Braxton McNulty, of Hanover, got the $100 Leapfrog award, named in honor of three deceased members of a 1978 Hanover team that made the Guinness Book of World Records for leapfrogging 555 miles around the high school football field in six days. McNulty, who is off to Wake Forest, got the award not for leapfrogging but for “representing the goals, spirit and resolve of his graduating class.” He plays baseball and hockey.

Band leader Gollub, who graduated from Hanover 20 years ago, put his charges to a contest: Who could guess the total number of times Pomp and Circumstance was played during the opening and closing ceremonies?

Two players picked the correct number — 12.

Tom Blinkhorn can be reached at tblinkhorn@gmail.com.

Hanover High Class of 2018

Lincoln Doane Adam; Ethan Adner; Anoushka Priya Alavilli; Beaven C Ankner-Edelstein; Holly May Baker; Johanna Holcombe Bandler; Sophia Baran; Douglas Robert Barnum; Earl Joji Barrowes; Morgan Graham Baughman; Samuel C. Beliveau; Elizabeth C. Berendsen; Kezar Berger; Whitney Bergeron; Sarah Bozuwa; Jayne Annette Bunge; John Long Burnham; Tessa Clare Cahoon; William Pogoda Campbell; Moises M. Celaya; Phineas A. Choukas; Molly Elizabeth Coates; Ethan Charles Cobb; Niklas Anders Cobb; Sivi Colberg; Molly P. Cook; Izaia Cecelia Coylewright; Carly E. Craft; Hannah Elaine Curtis; Rebecca Louise Darcy; Charlotte M. Dennison; Holly E. Dickinson; Eleanor King Downey; Brendan Joseph Dufty; Sarah Acadia Dunbar; Lydia Kate Duncan; Damien Allen-Michael John Dunham; Sophie Alexandra Dunn; Rachel Enelow; Anne Louise Essex; Samantha A. Estes; Jonah M. Felde; Malachy Gilrane Flynn; Daphnie C. Friedman; William T. Fullerton-Meaney; Ford K. Genereaux; Charles Brendan Goodrich; Azo Goodwin; Duolan Guo; Isabelle MacKenzie Hall; Marcus Patrick Hampers; Catherine Han; Alexandre Hankel; Sawyer Michael Hanlon; Allegra K. Harvard; Nicholas D. Harvard; Simon S. Herron; Jacob Corey Sheldon Hudnut; Katelyn Hurd; Justin George Hybels; Joseph S. Jacobs; Arturo Moffatt Johnson; Kathryn A. Jones-McQuillan; Henry Witt Kahl; Atticus F. Kangas; Fletcher Prescott Kaplan-James; Simran Kaur; Aisling T. Kelly; Elliott J. Kelly; Hanna S. Kingston; Hannah Lois Kirk; Katie Knippler; Gavin Gill Koehler; Margaret Frost Kohl; Henry Mathes Kuvin; Ellen E. Lamm; Harris Gregory LaRock; Briland Leigh Laycock; David L. Lehmann; Brook Pines Leigh; Camilla Maria Lettere; Grace W. Li; Jake R. Licht; Sadie Rice Lingelbach-Pierce; Isabel R. Loftus; Eleanor E. Lubell; Michael Milton Mackall; Alina Masland; Samuel R. Maynes; Shaylee McBride; Cristina Rose McCullough; Patrick W. McDevitt; Annica McDougall; Braxton H. McNulty; Lisamarie Alexandra Medina; Daniel X. Melnikov; Olivia M. Mendes; Terran Z. Merritt; Jasper Baton Meyer; Sophie Hanna Miles; Perrin E. Milliken; Alexander Hasting Mosenthal; Emily Christine Murphy; David A. Nagy-Pattantyus; James Campbell Napier IV; Roman Anthony Nett; Elisabeth Langer Nordstrom; Anna Elizabeth Nulton; Hannah Mekdes Osheyack; Hanna Olivia Panagrossi; Sophie Paige Panagrossi; Margaret Ann Parish; Benjamin T. Parrado; Brian M. Pattison; George Martin Paulsen; Graham Tuckerman Penfield; Daniel Pinigin; Clayton W. Pogue; Thomas V. Postans; Caleb M. Putnam; Nicolas M. Putnam; Samuel J. Pych; Benjamin Clay Ralston Daniel; Aris G. Rassias; Catherine S. Rooney; Amelia Helene Roth; Emma Louise Roy; Colin A. Rozzi; Caroline S. Ruth; Sofia Carole Sacerdote; Isabelle Sangha; Salome Shubitidze; Matthew D. Siegel; Harrison W. Silbert; Olivia Nicole Skirvin; Hayden A. Smith; Helen Perry Smith; Natalie J. Smith; Tahquiy Smith; Michael W. Staiger; Lyla Yvonne Taylor Stettenheim; Anastasia Irene Stevens; Ian Lamont Surat-Mosher; Matthew A. Suriawinata; Samantha M. Sutherland; Julia A. Taenzer; Max C. Taxman; Calen J. Thomas; Jordan J. Tuttle; Marion Clare Umpleby; Thomas R. Usherwood; Vincent Thomas Versteeg; Caitlin Marie Vollmann; Catherine R. Wagner; Madeleine G. Wallace; Peter G. Warhold; Rosemarie Fu Xia Webster; Matt J. Westelman; Caitlin McKay Westling; Sophia M. Wheelan; Iva Teresa Wich; David G. Wilson; Eli Woloshin; Mindy Wu; Anna Jianli Wysocki; Daniel C. Zegans; Kate A. Zegans; Jasper Zeng.

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