Tennis teams will send six to state
The Columbia Falls boys and girls tennis teams will send six athletes to state. On the boys' side, the doubles team of Vadim Zvygelskiy and Brian Marcille qualified with a win in the consolation semifinals. Parker Johnson qualified in the singles bracket.
Marcille and Zvygelskiy defeated Tyler Schiff and Francisco Valle of Whitefish to advance 7-6, 7-5. Johnson dropped Crawford Dinning of Libby, 7-6, 6-0.
On the girls' side, Tami Kolatschek beat teammate Natalie Law 6-2, 6-1 in the consolation semifinals to advance.
Marissa Getts and Lexie Bartkoski downed Alissa Buti and Kyla O'Brien of Libby 6-2, 6-2, in the consolation semis to advance to state.
Overall the boys placed fourth, the girls took third.
Coach Gary Yee was happy with the boys' effort.
"I was pleased with the team," he said. "To come up with 26 points, they did pretty well."
The boys team had few divisional victories prior to the tournament.
Jon Riffey, though he didn't qualify for state, had more victories in the tournament than he did all season long.
"The big surprise was our doubles team," Yee said. "They hadn't beat another No. 1 doubles team all season long."
Neither had Johnson.
"I'm proud of them," Yee said.
On the girls' side, coach Jerry Smalley was also pleased with the play.
"A typical Western A Divisional with its ups and downs for the Wildkats," he said. "Our major goal for the year is to qualify girls for state and we're honored to send Lexie and Marissa and Tami.
"I don't think I've seen a year with so much improvement in girls' play. All our girls played their personal bests at divisionals."
Even girls who didn't qualify showed some solid play, Smalley noted.
"An early highlight was Shay Grilley and Krystal Bedford defeating Whitefish No.1s and Libby No. 2s to gain the semi-finals. They came within a few points in a tiebreaker of qualifying for state … I'm just proud of the way these girls hung in there all season, putting together a fine dual record and representing Columbia Falls so well at the divisionals."
The tournament starts Thursday and runs through Saturday in Billings.