The Year in Sports

By DAVID ERICKSON/Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish boys soccer team made state history Oct. 27 in a thrilling, pressure-packed state final soccer match on their home field. Hundreds of screaming fans watched as the Bulldogs scraped by the tenacious Libby Loggers, 3-1, to claim their second consecutive state championship and their 30th straight win.

Never before has a Montana Class A soccer team gone undefeated in back-to-back years, and the 2007 Whitefish boys soccer team can now add that to their long list of accomplishments.

"This year, I saw a team take soccer where it's never been before," head coach O'Brien Byrd said. "This is the best team, in my opinion, in the history of Montana soccer, and I've been around a while. This is something that's never been done, and first and foremost, that we could do it at home, that was special."

Besides two close games against Columbia Falls and the state final, the Bulldogs bulldozed every opponent this year. They outscored their opponents 69-9 throughout the season.

The boys finished the 2007 season 15-0, just as they did in 2006. Jonas Magstadt and Preston Taylor were No. 1 and No. 2 in scoring for Class A, with 33 and 29 goals respectively.

Hanson leads harriers

On Sept. 29, Whitefish cross-country runner Loni Hanson set a Whitefish High School record, and her team posted a perfect score of 15 on their way to winning the Thompson Falls Invitational.

The top-seven girls across the finish line were all wearing Bulldog jerseys, although only the top-five figure in the team total.

Hanson's time of 18:52 beat the old record of 19:08 set by Claire Anderson in 1999 at the state meet in Helena. The top-five girls all finished in under 20 minutes.

A week later, On Oct. 6, led by Loni Hanson's course-record victory (18:59), the Lady Bulldogs pulled off another perfect score of 15 against a good field at the Whitefish Quadrangular cross-country meet.

At divisionals in Ronan on Oct. 13, the lady harriers won the crown by placing nine runners in the top-15 places.

On Oct. 20, Hanson, a Whitefish sophomore, solidified her place as the best Class A runner in the state. She claimed the individual overall title and helped the Lady Bulldogs to their first-ever team championship at the 44th annual MHSA Cross Country Championships in Helena.

The Whitefish girls won the title with a low score of 50 points, a dominating 96 points below their nearest competitor, Hamilton. Hanson (19:28) held off Mesa Starkey of Polson (19:33) to become the first Whitefish girl in 36 years to win a state title.

"I went out there to do my best," Hanson said. "I'm just so excited for our team, winning state for the first time ever."

Lady golfers take state

The talented and still very young Lady Bulldog golf team has started another run of dominance in Class A golf by winning the state championship for a second year in a row on Oct. 6 in Anaconda.

The last run by the girls was a seven-straight streak in the 1990s. Whitefish High School girls have won 17 team titles and are in the top-three nationally for most state championships.

The weather was a factor at Anaconda, with cold, wind, rain and even snow making the conditions somewhat less than ideal for all the players.

"It's tough to make a good swing when you're wearing everything you own," coach Terry Nelson said. "Our girls never complained at all about the playing conditions during the three days we were there."

Quinn Micklewright, Chelsea Ray and BreAnna Cameron all made the Class A All State Team again this year. For Ray, this is her third consecutive year as an All State player.

"Now it will be the girls with the bulls-eye on their back next season, instead of the boys," Nelson said.

Come-back Bulldogs win basketball divisionals

The Whitefish Bulldogs were on a hot streak at the end of the season after a cold start, defeating the Libby Loggers 36-33 at home to become the Northwestern A conference champions on Feb. 28.

"One more year! One more year!" the crowd chanted, but coach Julio Delgado retired from coaching after that season.

"I just think this team was just kind of a team of destiny," Delgado said of the emotional win.

Whitefish (11-10) was an underdog team this year. The team lost their first eight games and was seeded third in divisionals, but the young men didn't give up and focused on playing together as a team.

Nelson wins national coaching award

Terry Nelson, the head coach of the Whitefish High School boys and girls golf teams, was named the National Boys Golf Coach of the Year for 2007 by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association on May 28.

This award followed the third unbeaten season and state title in a row for the 2006 boys team. His girls team also won the 2006 Class A state title.

Nelson has overseen the Bulldogs girls and boys golf program for the past 24 years. During that time, the school has taken home 20 state titles and 42 divisional titles.

Whitefish students go for Guinness record

Two Whitefish High School students shot for a world speed record on Feb. 10, racing down Big Ravine at Whitefish Mountain Resort on skinny skis with flimsy racing shoes.

Reaching highway speeds on Nordic racing gear was "gnarly," said Erik Anderson, who was clocked at 62 mph. "Stopping was a huge problem."

That's putting it mildly — Anderson broke a ski in half on his last run. His partner, Ian Mallams, who was clocked at 57 mph, broke his pole in four places when he crashed.

Anderson and Mallam went on to represent the U.S. in the Scandinavian Cup races held in Sweden on Feb. 2-4. Mallams placed 19th overall and first among U.S. racers in the 1.3K sprint. Anderson placed 28th overall and third among U.S. skiers. The team placed seventh overall and first among the U.S. racers.

Schmid-Sommer

wins nationals

Whitefish free-heel skier Kelsey Schmid-Sommer took first overall in the U.S. Telemark Nationals race in Steamboat Springs, Colo., on March 3-4, earning a total of 78 points. Teammate Heidi Fehlhaber earned second overall with 63 points.

Schmid-Sommer took first place in a string of races — the women's elite giant slalom, the women's elite dual slalom, the women's elite classic, and the women's open sprint classic. Fehlhaber earned second in the giant slalom, second in the dual slalom and third in the classic.

For the Whitefish men, Shane Anderson stood out by taking second place overall with 67 points. Peter McMahon came in sixth with 49 points, David Hobbs took seventh with 48 points, Eric Lamb took eighth with 47, and Neil Persons placed 16th with 20.

Tennis teams finish perfect regular season

On May 12, the Whitefish boys and girls tennis teams defeated both Libby and Bigfork to end regular season play with perfect records overall.

The boys tennis team had three players who didn't lose a match all regular season — Matt Harris, Ian Hosek and Ryan Rottenbiller.

"I'm very proud of the kids, they worked really hard," Cummings said.

On May 19, the Bulldog boys swept the top-three places in singles matches at the Northwestern A Divisional tennis tournament. Overall, the boys doubled the second-place Bigfork team, earning 64 points to the Vikings' 32.

The Lady Bulldogs placed second overall at divisionals with 45 points, one point shy of tying first-place finisher Polson. In a disappointing match for Whitefish, Brielle Menegazzi was defeated in the championship singles match by Libby's Jackie Mee, 6-3, 6-2.

At the state tournament May 24-26, Matt Harris finished second in the state tournament in Miles City this week. He was defeated by Billing Central's Jordan Hatzell, 6-1, 6-1, in the championship singles match. The Whitefish boys scored 26 points to finish second overall.

The girls earned three points and placed 10th at state.

Girls win divisionals in track

The Whitefish girls track and field team won their third straight Northwestern A divisionals title by racking up 189 points on Saturday, May 19. The girls earned first place in eight events.

The boys came in second place with 109 points, just eight points shy of Polson's winning score of 117 points. The Bulldogs placed first in four events.

Courtney Ferda took first in the 100-meter dash in 12.61 seconds, the 200 in 26.09, the 400 in 59.34 and the 300 hurdles in 45.74.

Ashley Ferda placed first in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.39. She also took first in the javelin with a distance of 112-2.

Hailey Farmin took two firsts in the jumps. She won the long jump with a distance of 16-3 and took first in the triple jump with a distance of 33-11 3/4.

The girls also took a first in the 400 relay race and second in the 1,600 relay team in 4:12.62.

On May 26, the girls took second and the boys finished sixth at the Class A state track meet at Missoula County Stadium.

The Ferda cousins stood out with first-place performances. Ashley Ferda flew to a first-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.54 seconds, and cousin Courtney Ferda took first in the 200-meter dash in 25.72. Courtney Ferda was named Athlete of the Meet.

Courtney Ferda joins UM track team

After shattering records for Whitefish High School, Courtney Ferda headed to the University of Montana on a business scholarship and will join the school's track and field team. Ferda owns three individual state track and field records and two team records at the high school level, and nobody expects her dominance to end at the collegiate level.

"For Courtney, she scored 32.5 points at the state track meet, which to my knowledge is the best performance by any female in Whitefish since the mid 1980s, and she competed with some of the best in Montana history," Whitefish coach Derek Schulz said. "Her career was phenomenal."

Ferda says her proudest moment at that meet wasn't her individual accomplishment but helping her 400-meter relay team place second in Class A, something that a team from Whitefish hadn't done in 23 years.

Ashley Ferda to play basketball at UM

University of Montana women's basketball coach Robin Selvig announced on Aug. 27 that Ashley Ferda had signed a letter of intent to play with the Lady Griz beginning with the 2008-09 season.

A 5-6 point guard, Ferda is a three-sport standout at Whitefish High School. The senior Lady Bulldog is a multiple-time all-state selection in basketball, volleyball, and track and field.

Ferda started four years on the Lady Bulldog volleyball team that won state titles in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and took second place at this month's Class A state tournament. She was recently named the MVP of the state tournament.

"Once I made the decision to play college basketball rather than volleyball, Montana was by far my first choice," Ferda said.

Boys run at state ends at three

It was a great run for the Whitefish High School boys golf team, with Sam Krause and Andre Groschupf the two seniors who were part of the Class A record-tying ride of three in a row.

"The boys wanted to set a new bar, but it wasn't to be," coach Nelson said. The boys ended up in third place at the State tournament in Anaconda.

Krause ended his high school career as a Bulldog golfer with three state titles and one state individual championship.

Andre Groschupf added All State honors to his collection and a great four-year career with the Bulldog golf team.

Girls soccer team loses heartbreaker in OT at state

Playing without 10 varsity players, six of them starters, the defending state champion Lady Bulldogs lost a thriller in the 2007 state soccer game on Oct. 27, falling on the road to Belgrade, 1-2, in a 20-minute overtime period.

"They did incredible. I have so much pride in everybody who got us to that game, and everyone who played," head coach Lini Reading said.

She had one week and three days of practice to prepare a roster without one-third of her regular lineup.

"Every single kid played that game like there was nothing to lose, and for some of them it was the first varsity minutes of their life, the state championship game," she said. "It was just amazing. Heart and determination go a long way."

To force a title game into overtime with only one senior on the field, Kaitlyn Sleichter, and six junior varsity players against an undefeated Belgrade team, is an accomplishment that Reading won't soon forget.

"Anytime you get that close, you think, 'What could we have done…'" she said. "But I told them that, although the scoreboard doesn't say it, you guys are all champions."

Eight soccer players make all-state

Six Whitefish Bulldogs and two Lady Bulldogs were named to the all-state soccer teams, the most combined players selected from any town.

Tyler Gardner, Shane Widdifield, Alex Konopatzke, Preston Taylor, Jonas Magstadt and Matt Grindrod, all seniors, were the all-state choices for the boys. Senior Alissa LaChance and junior Carly Lengstorf were the all-state choices for the girls.

Jake Danczyk, a junior on the boys team, was named all-conference.

Four Whitefish girls were named to the all-conference team — juniors Hannah Long, Kelsey McCluskey and Kylee Smith and senior Kaitlyn Sleichter. Junior Megan Powell took honorable mention.

Spikers take second at state

The Whitefish Lady Bull-dogs, in an improbable and thrilling run, played their way out of the consolation bracket and into the state championship final at the 2007 All-Class State Volleyball tournament in Bozeman on Nov. 10.

It was looking like the Whitefish girls would claim their fourth consecutive state title after they won the first game against the Lewistown Eagles, but the Lady Bulldogs were unable to sustain the momentum, losing to Lewiston in four games.

"It was a great run," said head coach Jackie Fuller, who has taken Whitefish to four consecutive title games. "It showed what I knew about these girls. They are hard workers, and they believed in each other."

On Nov. 4, the Lady Bulldogs earned their 11th straight trip to the state tournament by taking second place at the Northwestern A divisional tournament in Ronan.

Whitefish posted an 8-2 league mark, and a 14-4 overall record, over the course of the regular season, with their only two conference losses coming at the hands of the Lady Loggers, one of them going to a fifth game. Whitefish, however, got back at Libby by knocking them out of the state tournament on Nov. 9.