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There will be some new faces on the field and on the bench for the Plains-Hot Springs Trotters softball team this spring. Leading that list of new faces will be head coaches Kati Mitchell and Dani Walker Crowe. In an unusual arrangement, Mitchell will be head coach for the first week of the season and Crowe will take over the program after that. Both Mitchell and Crowe have previously served as assistants for Michele Bangen, who has since stepped down. In her last season as head coach in 2019, Bangen led the Trotters to third place trophies in...
The Plains High School golf teams have been busy getting ready for the 2021 season of play. Coached by Lisa Brown and Don Stamm, as they were two years ago before the COVID-19 interruption of 2020 when no high school sports were played, the Horsemen and Trotters should both have full squads for team scoring this spring. For the Horsemen, seniors Duncan Chisholm, Nathan Feliksa and Nick Gumm, sophomore Drew Carey and freshman Brandt Snead will carry the clubs, and for the Trotters, senior Kaylee Cole, juniors Lexa Craft, Grace Horton and Tessa...
Eight girls and six boys have turned out for the 2021 Plains track and field team. Coached by long-time mentor Denise Montgomery, the Horsemen and Trotter thinclads made their season debut at the Eureka Time Trials Saturday, and will participate in the Bigfork Invitational Saturday. Tucker Foster is the only senior out for Plains track and field, and Adelle Ercanbrack the only junior. Sophomores Levi Blood, Mason Elliott, Nicholas Hill, Alexis Helterline and Lillian McDonald, and frehsmen Joe Martin, Brendan Vanderwall, Olivia Easter, Amy...
Noxon seniors Jared Webley and Josh Baldwin have earned invitations to play for the Blue team in the annual Montana 6-Man All-Star Game to be played in Highwood June 5. Both All-State C players for the Red Devils last fall, Webley and Baldwin helped lead coach Bart Haflich’s team into the State 6-Man playoffs, and will be joining 14 other players from the Western Division on the Blue team in Highwood. The Red team is made up of all-star players from the Eastern Division of Montana 6-Man football....
When it comes to Thompson Falls weightlifting, there is only one Sarah Detlaff, the legendary Hawk lifter who graduated just last year, completing her time in the sport with two individual state titles and four records to her name. But it turns out that there is another rising star in the world of Blue Hawk weightlifting, and her name is Chesney Lowe, a TFHS sophomore who broke one of Detlaff's state records on her way to second place in the 132-pound division in Helena Saturday. Competing...
The Montana State AAU junior wrestling tournament was held in Kalispell last weekend and the Blue Hawk Wrestling Club was well represented at the Fairgrounds complex, crowning three champions and placing several other wrestlers in the top six. The wrestling Block girls – Kleonna (Tot – 40 pounds), Neala (Bantam – 40) and Hartleigh (Bantam – 45) – all won championships, the best of class at their weights, to lead the Blue Hawk contingent in Kalispell. McKenzie Morgan, a Noxon High School st...
Not spring sports as usual in 2021. Fresh off the pandemic-cancelled spring sports season of 2020, the spring of 2021 cannot help but be better than that, and it already looks promising in comparison. Although no one has any accomplishments from last spring to compare to or try to live up to, at least local prep athletes and teams are out there playing, practicing for an actual spring sports season now. With schedules still largely in a state of flux at this writing, the 2021 prep spring sports seasons will kick off later this week. Eureka...
The Thompson Falls boys basketball team was welcomed home with a parade after returning from the state basketball tournament in Billings. The Blue Hawks brought home the fourth-place trophy. The parade was escorted by the Thompson Falls Police Department and city firefighters, and the bus was followed by parents and fans honking and waving....
One of the best Blue Hawk boys basketball teams in history put an exclamation point on their amazing season last week, completing a stirring tournament run for Thompson Falls by winning fourth place in the State B tournament at Metra Park in Billings. The fourth place win represents the Blue Hawks' best finish in a state tournament since the Steve Previs-led Thompson Falls boys brought home a second place trophy from the 1953 State C tourney in Conard (see View for more). The architect of this l...
The 2020-2021 high school basketball season in Montana was unlike any before in the Big Sky Country. With social distancing and limited crowd sizes, many games this COVID-19 addled season were played in front of largely empty gyms, with little or no fan support, sometimes for either team. Such was the case for Montana prep teams right on through the tournaments these last few weeks. As an example, the combined State B tournaments were played in the cavernous Metra Park last week in front of most...
Going into Saturday's highly-anticipated 132-pound State B-C title match with heated rival Gunnar Smith, Trae Thilmony didn't think he could win the match. He knew he could win the match. "I was confident," Thilmony said. "Gunnar had beat me on my feet when we had wrestled earlier this year, so I knew had to make some adjustments, and I guess they worked out pretty well." Indeed, an uncommon student of the sport, Thilmony knew exactly what he had to do facing an all-time great wrestler seeking the fourth State B-C title of his storied career,...
"Top 3 in Division! Top 3 in State!" The Thompson Falls-Noxon wrestling team had their team goals plastered on a poster hanging in their wrestling room this winter. That poster provided a tangible goal, one that each and every Blue Hawk grappler believed in and was working towards. Fighting to achieve those goals to the final whistle in each and every match they wrestled, another mighty fine Thompson Falls-Noxon wrestling season ended last week. Led by 132-pound individual champion Trae...
EUREKA – A hot finish beats a cold start anytime, especially in a basketball tournament. Starting out ice-cold but finishing up red-hot, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys won third place and a rare State B bid at the Western B divisional basketball tournament in Eureka last week. It will mark the Hawk boys' first appearance in a State B tournament since way back in 2005. "This is a rare treat, a feather in the cap for this team," coach Jake Mickelson said. "And my hat is off to these kids – they...
A welcome walk into the great unknown of State B tournament basketball. The Thompson Falls Blue Hawks won a berth into the State B basketball tournament in Billings this week by winning third in the Western B tourney in Eureka (see other story). Coach Jake Mickelson is quite understandably very excited about the opportunity his team has; perhaps too excited. “I have barely slept the last few nights,” he said. “I am just really excited that our guys get a chance to play in a state tournament, it’s a pretty rare opportunity for these kids, one th...
All in all a pretty good season for Plains-Hot Springs wrestling. Coach Shane Angle and seven of his Savage Horsemen wrestlers completed the season competing in the State B-C tournament in Shelby last week, scoring 48 points, finishing 14th in team scoring and placing two wrestlers – Peter Carey fourth at 126 pounds and younger brother Drew Carey sixth at 120. Besides the Carey brothers, the Schultze clan – brothers Jacob (at 120), Stephen (126) and David (132) – also all competed in Shelb...
EUREKA – Maybe not the perfect result, but definitely the perfect effort. The Thompson Falls Lady Hawks fought the good fight but could never seem to find the regular-season magic that got them to this point, and lost two of three games at the Western B divisional tournament Eureka last week to complete season play with a 14-4 record. "These girls gave us the perfect effort, they never quit trying," coach Chadd Laws said. "We didn't get the perfect result but that's the way basketball goes s...
Superhuman efforts by all Hawks involved at the very first super divisional. The Thompson Falls-Noxon Blue Hawk wrestling team, spearheaded by stirring championship wins by Trae Thilmony (132 pounds), Elijah Ratliff (145) and Dane Chojnacky (182), surged to an impressive fifth place team finish in the Western B-C divisional tournament in Cut Bank last weekend, the first of its kind including all 24 teams now assigned to the division – now dubbed as a super divisional tourney. What's more, S...
The Plains-Hot Springs wrestling team members are brothers in arms, some of them brothers by blood, but beyond that also brothers of the wrestling kind. Carrying their school colors proudly last week in the Western B-C divisional tournament at Cut Bank, the Savage Horsemen qualified seven grapplers for the State B-C meet in Shelby this week. Sixteen P-HS wrestlers competed in the Western B-C. Two sets of very effective wrestling brothers – Jacob (fourth at 120 pounds), Stephen (fourth at 126) a...
Building a 12-3 record this winter, the Thompson Falls Blue Hawk boys suffered one of their worst outings of the season in a 68-61 loss to Loyola in Missoula back in early February. With the stakes considerably higher this time, coach Jake Mickelson and his Hawks will face Loyola at 1:15 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Western B divisional tournament. Since the top three teams from the eight-team divisional tourney will move on to the State B tournament in Billings March 11-13,...
The Lady Hawks have proven to be one of the best basketball teams in western Montana this winter; now they need to prove it one more time at this week's Western B divisional tournament in Eureka. Eureka will open its hosting of the Western B playing Deer Lodge at 1 p.m. Wednesday, followed by Bigfork versus Loyola at 3. In the evening session, Anaconda will face off with Mission at 5 p.m. with Thompson Falls playing Florence at 7. The Lady Hawks' last game played was a 55-30 win over Florence...
Finally, with all the dual matches done and in the books, it's time for some good old-fashioned tournament wrestling. The new and improved Western B-C divisional tournament, which now includes 25 teams, mostly from the former Western and Northern B-C divisions, will be held in Cut Bank Friday and Saturday. The top eight finishers from each weight class then move on to the State B-C meet in Shelby March 5-6. Local squads, like the Thompson Falls Blue Hawks are eager to place as many wrestlers as...
When the Hawks open up their shooting clinic, there is no cure – chances are you are going to lose if going up against them. Opening up a can of clinical-like shooting from all points on the floor the Thompson Falls boys surged past the visiting Florence Falcons 80-71 in an entertaining non-conference game at TFHS Saturday. Finishing regular season action with a 12-3 record, coach Jake Mickelson and his Hawks will now cool their heels until playing Missoula Loyola in the first round of the c...
The Hot Springs Savage Heat girls completed season play in the remotely-held District 14C tournament last week, falling to the Lady Red Devils 44-27 in Noxon Tuesday and then 51-23 to the Trotters in Plains Friday. At Noxon, Lizzy Fisher led the Lady Hawks with 11 points, Lily DeTienne scored five, Brooke Jackson four, Brynn Courville three, and Georgia Uski and Emma Rae Rassmussen two each. In the season-ending game at Plains, Fisher completed her fine season with a 16-point effort, Rassmussen scored five and Jackson two. See other stories...
Still riding high after the first Montana Girls All-State wrestling tournament, where two Plains-Hot Springs wrestlers won medals and two others also had the opportunity to compete, the Savage Horsemen grapplers will try to live up to what their girls accomplished in the next few weeks. The Montana boys prep wrestling season sees the beginning of the end this weekend as teams gather for the first tournaments of the 2020-2021 school year. In Class B-C, that means that the 25 teams of the Western...
It could have been better and it could have been worse but, in the end, the Trotters played their hardest and that’s all that coach Eddie Fultz was asking for all along. Going 2-2 in the remotely played District 14C tournament, the Plains Trotters completed season play with a 7-8 record last week. Starting with a 44-43 win over St. Regis in Plains Tuesday, the Trotters then lost to eventual conference tourney champs Charlo 53-25 in Charlo Thursday before coming back to stay alive with a 51-23 win over Hot Springs in Plains Friday. The T...
