Golfers tune up for divisionals
Columbia Falls golfers had a tough time against Glacier High School in a Sept. 13 match play dual at Meadow Lake Resort.
The Wolfpack swept the Wildcats, taking all five matches.
Dillon Eaves defeated Parker Johnson, 2 and 1; Kevin Talcott defeated Brian Marcille, 8 and 4; Cody Buck defeated Henry Chisholm, 6 and 5; Austin Hilde defeated Coby Hutchens, 9 and 7; and Greg Jones beat Markie Reiten, 8 and 6.
On the same day, Columbia Falls also competed in the West Glacier Invitational, hosted by Columbia Falls. The Frenchtown girls and the Libby boys won the tourney.
Top golfer for the Wildkats was Britney Cotton, who shot a 102, good enough for 10th place. Baylee Brinton had 118, and Olivia Lewis-Peterson had 122.
On the boys side, it was junior varsity golfers. Jared LaRoque led the field with a 102. Joe Tamburelli had 103, Adam Richardson 122, Cole Brown 122, Joe McIntyre 127, Cody Hader 135 and Christian Stapley 160.
On Friday, the team traveled to the Libby Invitational. Wildkat junior McKenna Emmerich carded a personal best 106 to lead the Columbia Falls girls golf team to a fifth-place finish. Emmerich finished ninth.
Juniors Morgan Love and Maggie Panasuk shot 109 and 115 respectively, and sophomore Britney Cotton fought through illness to post a 124 to round out the Wildkat team score of 454. The Polson Lady Pirates took top team honors at 388.
"This was McKenna's first tournament playing No. 1 seed, and she really rose to the occasion," coach Gene Marcille said. "McKenna, Morgan and Maggie are showing steady improvement each week, so we're really excited to see how we do at the divisional tournament."
On the boys side, the Wildcats posted a 416 in Libby, with Johnson's 88 landing him in seventh place, followed by Marcille at 104, Chisholm 105, Hutchens 119 and Reiten 125. Whitefish took team honors with 336, led by medalist Arthur Doorn's 73.
"Both Brian and Henry played better than their scores showed," Marcille said. "It's just a matter of getting all the aspects of the game to come together at the right time."
Next up is Northwest A Divisional Tournament at the Polson Bay Golf Course on Thursday, Sept. 22.