Tennis players have tough time at state

Columbia Falls tennis teams didn’t bring home any hardware from the state tennis tournament May 24-25 in Great Falls, but they had some nice performances.

The best showing came from the doubles team of Parker Johnson and Miroslav Zvyagelskiy, who went 2-2 at the meet.

In the first round, Johnson and Zvyagelskiy beat Blake Stanhope and Nick Burman of Glendive, 6-3, 6-1, but in the second round they lost to Bridger Walcyzniski and D.J. Pekoc of Corvallis, 6-1, 6-1.

The Wildcat duo battled back to beat Garth Roe and Dennis Berg of Glendive, 6-0, 6-3. In the next round, however, they lost to Lane Baumann and Jaysun Albert of Hardin, 6-2, 6-0.

In singles, Brian Marcille lost his first round match to Dallas Lussier of Livingston 6-2, 6-4. Marcille came back in the consolation round to beat John Knisley of Billings Central, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 but lost to conference foe Brady Hislop of Polson in the second round of the consolation bracket, 6-1, 6-0.

On the girls side, Gabrielle Stenger lost both her matches. In the first match, she was defeated by Kim Lamar of Hamilton 6-2, 6-3. In the consolation round, she lost to Jeanna Mane of Lewistown 6-2, 7-6.

Girls coach Jerry Smalley named Stenger the team’s most valuable player. Emma Covill won the Wildkat spirit award, and Gabby Keller was named most improved at the team’s year-end banquet.