Prep golfers weather the storm

The weather wasn't perfect for golf, but Plains hosted its annual high school tournament at Wild Horse Golf Course west of Plains Saturday.

Under overcast skies with a threat of rain the entire day, players from eight western Montana teams vied for honors in the latest edition of the Plains Invitational.

Almost shooting scratch golf, Bucky Crippen fired a 74 and teammate Reed Noyd a 78 to lead the Loyola Rams to the boys title. With the girls, Loyola's Katie Fagg shot 79 to win and Breaker teammate Isa Tomazelli registered a 91 to win second, leading the Loyola girls to the team title as well.

Not having enough golfers to qualify for team scoring, the Thompson Falls boys and girls were led around Wild Horse by Ethan Brown, who finished fourth among the boys with an 83, and by Megan Baxter, who claimed fifth place in the girls tourney with a round of 107.

Nathan Ostwald and Ben Croft also played for the Hawks boys in Plains and Jolie Buchanan hit the links for the Lady Hawks.

Duncan Chisholm and Nick Gumm represented the Plains boys in the tournament and McKenna O'Lexey, Miera Loberg, Grace Horton and Taylor Angle played for the Trotters.

Loyola won the boys portion of the tournament with a final total of 324, Darby took second with 383 and Bigfork third with 400. Loyola's girls also won with 423 and Bigfork took second with 434. Golfers from Eureka, St. Regis and Clark Fork (the co-op formed between Superior and Alberton) completed the Plains Invitational field.

Thompson Falls and Plains teams plan on golfing in the Bigfork Invitational at Eagle Bend Golf Course Thursday in the only scheduled action this week for both teams.

In other action last week, three Thompson Falls players also competed in the Florence/Darby Invitational played in Hamilton Thursday.

Brown shot a 91 and then won a chip-off to claim eighth place overall and Ostwald also played well, scoring 100. Baxter won seventh in the girls tourney with a round of 114.