Sports

POLSON — Now in his second year as Polson’s track and field head coach, Mike Ellis said what his team lacks in quantity they make up for in quality.  “The season is going pretty well,” said Ellis, who teaches at Polson Middle School. “We’re down in numbers and I’d like (the team to have) more like 100 athletes like some of the competitors we compete against, but we’re doing well. The thing is that we have a small quantity, but they’re good quality. Hopefully that will translate into some good places at divisionals and state.” One such quality athlete is Anna DiGiallonardo. A jill-of-all-trades, DiGiallonardo runs the 100...

ST. IGNATIUS — With rainstorms, cold weather and puddles to contend with this spring, the MAC softball team just laughed. They’ve dealt with worse weather, including 2 inches of snow at last year’s state tournament. MAC stands for Mission, Arlee and Charlo, since it’s a combined team ...

The Polson Lady Pirate tennis team claimed its seventh consecutive divisional championship last weekend, while the boys won their second divisional title in a row. The Polson girls scored 55 points to send Whitefish into second with 45, followed by Columbia Falls with 23 and Libby with 2. The Pirates finishe...

MISSOULA — Ronan-St. Ignatius’ Jalen Bell defended his divisional championships in long jump and triple jump last weekend, leaping 21 feet, 8.75 inches in the long jump and 43 feet, 10 inches in the triple jump.  Paden Alexander added a double divisional championship to his career accompl...

The St. Ignatius boys had a tough run at the 2013 state tournament, not only in the end results, but also with the weather. All three days were rained out and play was moved inside, which resulted in shortened scoring that could have affected a couple of players’ end results if they had played full set...

RONAN — While this is his first year coaching Ronan softball, head coach Brad Benson believes his girls have what it takes to make it to the state tournament.  “As far as the season, we’ve been doing really well,” Benson said. “We went down to the Frenchtown tournament a...

MISSOULA — The Ronan-St. Ignatius boys came away the District 6-B champions after a weekend of tough competition at Missoula County Stadium. St. Ignatius distance leader Paden Alexander won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races, setting a new record for his school in the 1,600 with a time of 4:29.37. A...

EUREKA — The Mission Lady Bulldog tennis players traveled to divisionals in Eureka last weekend, finishing the tourney just five points shy of first-place Bigfork. Briar Ahlborn won divisionals in singles; Kayla Billette took third; and Cierra Dougherty took sixth. All three advance to state this we...

The Mission Bulldogs hosted the Boys Best of the West tennis tournament Saturday, and Mission picked up several good wins. At No. 1 singles, Karl Daniels came in third, while Steven Oliver was second at No. 2 singles. Troy Bontrager took fourth at No. 3 singles, and Jamie Mullins won at No. 4 singles.&nbs...

LIBBY — Polson’s boys and girls tennis had a big Saturday in Libby, with Dylan McCrumb taking a hard-fought victory from Danny Leggins at No. 2 singles.  “The boys battled it out for over two hours in extreme heat,” head coach Bob Hislop said.  Whitney Zimmerman and Br...