Golfers shine in pair of tournaments

Bigfork High School's golf teams had a busy and successful week last week, as three of the team's golfers placed in the top 10 in the Bigfork Invitational on Thursday and the Plains Invitational on Saturday and the boys team placed second at both matches.

Bigfork sophomore Sara Keenan earned third place in both competitions. She had an 81 in Plains, which was just two strokes behind Maggie Crippen and Kelsie Crippen, sisters from Loyola Sacred Heart in Missoula, who were tied at 79 at the end of regulation play. Maggie Crippen, a sophomore, won the one-hole playoff over her sister, who is a senior. In the Bigfork Invite, Keenan shot an 88 after pulling in a score of 45 on the first round and 43 on the second.

"Sara is doing good. She is improving," Hullett said. "She's catching up to the Crippens. It doesn't really matter until divisionals and state anyway. I still believe in her."

Loyola cleaned up the rest of the top honors in Bigfork as well. Maggie Crippen was again first with a score of 80, Kelsie Crippen was second with 83 and Taylor Galiher placed fourth with an 89.

The Loyola girls placed first in the team rankings at each of the invites as well with a 366 in Plains and a 386 in Bigfork.

There was just one other school with enough girls to count as a team in Plains and that was Clark Fork, Idaho, which had a 542. In Bigfork there were two other girls teams. Shelby placed second with 447 and Cut Bank was third with 485.

Bigfork's Kyle Parker and Steven Schuster led the boys to back-to-back second-place finishes behind Loyola.

In Plains, the Vikes had a combined score of 350, which was 33 strokes more than Loyola and nine better than the third place team, Plains.

At their home invite, the Vikes placed second with a 359 and Loyola finished with a 323.

Bigfork's closest competition was Thompson Falls and Plains with scores of 392 and 393, respectively. There were 10 boys teams at the Bigfork Invitational and seven at the Plains Invitational.

Parker and Schuster finished fifth and sixth with scores of 80 and 85, respectively, in Plains. At the Bigfork tournament, Parker led the Vikes with his score of 81, which was good enough to put him in a tie for second place with Loyola's Alex Carlson. Parker shot a 43 on the first nine, but made up some ground on the last nine with a 38.

At the Bigfork invite, Loyola's Tom Swanson sat alone on top with a 72. Seeley-Swan's Robert Baier and Dan Cloninger of Loyola tied for fourth place with scores of 83. Cloninger took first place in Plains with a 67 and Swanson was second with a 69. Dan Krautter from Dillon shot a 76, which earned him third place and Baier took fourth with a 78.

"The Loyola kids played really well and the kid from Seeley Lake and the kid from Dillon played really well too," Hullett said. "Kyle is capable. He just can't make mistakes, especially when he is playing against kids that are that good. Kyle just had to realize how good he can be."Schuster tied for sixth in the Bigfork Invite. He shot an 84 and so did Ryan McInerney of Fairfield. He had 41 strokes on the first nine holes and 43 on the second.

"He's getting ready to pop," Hullett said of Schuster. "He's very capable and he's wanting to play better. He'll get it together."

Due to the previous days' weather conditions in Bigfork some of the holes at Eagle Bend Golf Club were too wet for the golfers to play on, so they used holes one through three and 13 through 18 on the 18-hole course and the Lake Nine to account for the 18-hole invitational course this year.

The boys' played a 6,505 yard course and the girls played a course of 5,169 yards. Both had a par of 73.

The girls played the Lake Nine for their first nine holes and the boys were on the 18-hole course for their first nine.

Also helping the Bigfork boys finish in second place twice this week were freshman Blake Weimer, who shot a 94 in Bigfork and a 93 in Plains, and Ronnie Granier, who earned a 100 in Bigfork and a 95 in Plains.

Ryan Conway was the fifth member of the boys team for the Bigfork match and he finished with a score of 112.

Dillon Fraley played in the fifth spot in Plains and he shot a 97.

"They're improving," Hullett said of his less experienced players.

Bigfork also had a first-timer competing on the links this week. Freshman Aly Losleben had a score of 146 in the Bigfork Invitational. She did not compete in Plains because she was sick.

"For her first time out, she did really well," Hullett said. "She finished and she didn't get lost. Everything was good. If she keeps at it, she'll get better. She's a good little athlete."

Bigfork's golf team has its next outing Saturday, April 24, in Thompson Falls and then does not have another tournament until the first week in May.

Bigfork will play in Seeley-Swan's tournament May 4 and in the St. Regis Invitational on May 6.

Hullett said that having multiple competitions in the same week is good for his players, especially at this point in the season.,

"It keeps them involved in the sport," he said. "We're getting down to the wind-down time of the season. We'll have divisionals before too long and if we have anyone that qualifies for it, state. It's just bang, bang, bang."

The Western B Divisional Tournament is May 10 in Missoula and the Class B State Tournament is May 18 and 19 in Huntley Project.