CFHS golfers third in home meet

Micah Jam carded an 88 and Tanner Lineberry came in with a 91 to lead the Columbia Falls boys to third place at a four-team golf tournament on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at Meadow Lake Golf Resort. Jam was fifth overall.

Libby took the team title with a score of 348. Ronan was runner-up at 369, which was a stroke better than Columbia Falls. Zach Watson of Libby was the medalist, shooting a solid 77 on the tough par-72 course.

For Columbia Falls, Jordan Mueller shot a 95, Nick Ross and Brad Narducci both had 96's, followed by Chris Boka and Mike Cotton with 107's, Zac Gardner 112, Nate Holt 115 and Nathan Rawley with 125.

On the girls' side of competition, Whitefish led with a team score of 445, followed by Libby at 496, and the hometown Wildkats had 552. Whitefish's Brianna Cameron shot 89 — a full 10 shots better than Katy Sorrell of Ronan in second. For Columbia Falls, Kelsey DeWitt carded a 125 for 10th place, followed by Jordanna Weimer (129) Courtney Tamburelli (144) and Olivia Williams (152).

The Columbia Falls teams hosted a triangular golf meet on Sept. 28 at Meadow Lake, as players from Polson and Bigfork came to town.

Polson captured the 18-hole tournament with a team score of 341, followed by Bigfork at 370, the CFHS Blue team at 387 and the CFHS White team at 412. Polson placed boys in the top three spots with Tyler Engrebretson shooting an 83 to lead all competitors. The best Wildcat of the day was Lineberry, a sophomore, in fourth place with an 87 while senior Jam was a bit off his game — shooting a 94 for 10th place.

Columbia Falls was able to play 12 boys in this home varsity tournament with 10 finishing. Ross, another sophomore, and freshman Cotton shot 97's, followed by Holt (101) Mueller (105) Boka (106) Rawley (111), Gardner (112) Taylore Hopkins (123).

"It was sort of a good news/bad news day for us," CFHS coach Gene Marcille said. "We expected a better finish by our best players, but we were really excited to have so many of our younger kids get some varsity experience."

The girls side of the tournament was an individual battle since Polson was the only full team. Natalia Arlint of Pirates squad took first with a 94 followed by teammate Julia Digiallonardo at 100. DeWitt, a Wildkat sophomore, finished eighth with a respectable 128.

This Saturday, Sept. 8, Columbia Falls golfers head for Libby for a 10-team invitational starting at 10 a.m.

Whitman, Gimbel, Jessat lead CF harriers at Libby

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls boys cross team had three top-20 finishers in its first varsity meet of the season at Libby on Friday.

Shawn Whitman led the boys, taking 16th with a time of 17:40.6. Tripp Gimbel was 17th, with a 17:43.7 and Patric Jessat was 18th, with a 17:48.

The team didn't get a varsity score as it only had three runners in the varsity race.

"All three boys are looking like early-season favorites to be all-conference this year. In JV competition, Tim Chopper led the JV boys to a fourth-place finish, placing 17th. Also finishing in the top 20 was freshman Pascal Jessat," coach Steve Gasche said.

On the girls' side, two runners ran in the varsity race. Nikki Elek was 29th with a time 22:21.2 and Anna Downen was 34th (22:40.1). They were the only two varsity runners.

In JV action, the Wildkat girls won the meet. They were led by top-10 finishes from Tessa Cowan, Nicki Moser, Nicole Mickelson and Madison Stolte.

"Tessa, Nicki and Madison are all freshmen and are showing a lot of promise for varsity level competition," Gasche said.

The team also took two junior high runners with them. Justin Whitman won the 1.62-mile junior high race by 100 meters with a time of 10:13.8. Jenise Osborne was second in her race in 12:13.

Gasche said the younger Whitman is one of the fastest junior high runners in the state and he's looking forward to him coming into the high school ranks.

The team travels to Flathead at the Kidsport complex at Kalispell on Saturday, Sept. 8. Varsity runners for the girls will be Elek, Downen, Nicole Mickelson and Addie Houle.

Whitman, Gimbel and Jessat will run for the boys. Races start at 10 a.m.