Boys and girls are champs at Ronan golf tourney
Both the Whitefish boys and girls golf teams won the Ronan Invitational last Thursday at Mission Mountain Golf Club. The field included all Western Class A teams, from Hamilton to Libby, plus squads from Browning, Glacier and Flathead. A total of 13 teams competed in the one-day event.
Lady Bulldog Quinn Micklewright led the girls team with great round of 81, followed by junior BreAnna Cameron's 82 and Kiley McConnell at 84.
Danielle McCully posted another round of 94 to help the girls score a six-shot win over the Polson Pirates. Ellen Scheffer also had a good tournament posting a 101 over the Mission Mountain course.
Polson's Julia D'Giallonardo finished with medalist honors, followed by Whitefish's Micklewright in second, Cameron third, Kiley McConnell fourth and McCully ninth in a large field of players.
Micklewright had three birdies on the day to post her lowest score of the year. Cameron pounded her driver over 250 yards and reached one of the par fives in two.
McConnell posted a 39 on her back-nine score to prove she's ready to go even lower this year. For McCully, it was her second tournament below 100 and represents a great improvement over last season for the sophomore.
"The girls team score of 341 was very impressive," Bulldog coach Terry Nelson said. "The tournament also pointed out the need to keep working on our short game, especially putting."
On the boys side, freshman Reed Platke was low for the Bulldogs with a 76 to take second place overall, just one shot out of the lead. Glacier High's Jake Miller shot a 75 to take medalist honors.
Joel Mallams shot 77 and took third for Whitefish, followed by Daniel Markus at 78, Ryan Zalucky with 79 and Zach Maassen with 80.
The boys' margin of victory with a 310 team score was 17 shots better than the Glacier No. 2 team and 27 shots better than the closest Class A squad from Hamilton.
"While victory in the tournament was great, we know we can still get considerably better as the season progresses," Nelson said. "Mallams has really been dropping his scores this past week and could go even lower in our next events. The varsity boys are being challenged by a strong group of boys eager to break-in to the lineup".
The varsity and JV teams will compete against Flathead and Glacier in the Valley Challenge on Sept. 11 at Big Mountain Golf Club and Village Greens courses. While the Glacier boys are odds-on favorites this year, the Lady Bulldogs should post the best scores on their side of the tournament.