Wildcat competitors shine in 2014

With two state team titles and several individual titles, the Columbia Falls High School’s sports and academic teams continued to show their mettle, from the court to the podium, and from the mats to the turf. Highlights include:

• The speech and debate team won its ninth straight Class A title in January, beating Hamilton 170-127. Seniors Mark Hader and Mason Gedlaman won individual titles.

• Coach Cary Finberg broke the school boys basketball win record, eclipsing Ralph Johnson’s mark of 267 wins, with a victory over Eureka on Jan. 30. At the end of the regular season last year, Finberg’s combined boys and girls career record was 316-153. Finberg coaches both the boys and girls teams.

• Junior Shonn Roberts won his third straight Class A state wrestling title in February, making him the most successful wrestler in school history. Roberts beat Ethan Graves of Sidney 6-0 in the 126-pound weight class for the title.

• The boys basketball team won its fifth Class A state title in March. The Wildcats beat Dillon 56-47. The Cats shot 51.7 percent overall from the field, 76 percent from the free throw line and 70 percent from the three-point arc, and the defense held Dillon to just 25 percent overall shooting from the field and a paltry 17.6 percent from the three-point arc.

• The Columbia Falls girls basketball team had a good year, winning the Northwest Class A divisional title and taking third at state in March.

• In May, junior Samantha Mundel took the Class A state title in the 3,200 meters. She went on to win the state Class A cross country title in October.

• In August, the Glacier Twins won the state American Legion A League title. The Twins beat the Laurel Dodgers 8-4 in the title game.

• The girls soccer team made it to the Class A finals in November but fell to Laurel in the championship match 2-1.

• The boys football team lost to Hamilton 27-21 in the first round of the state Class A playoffs in November. The Wildcats finished the year at 7-2 overall.

• The girls volleyball team took second in the Class A state playoffs in November. They were edged by Belgrade in the final match, 25-18, 25-14, 25-9, after coming through the loser-out bracket with nearly six straight hours of volleyball on the final day.

• After three years of organizing and fundraising, the Columbia Falls swim team finally hit the pool in November.

The eight-member team practices with the Whitefish team. At its first meet in Kalispell, the Cats had two individual champions in Colton Babcock and Zayne Friar.