Flathead begins state tennis march

The Flathead High School tennis teams displayed their remarkable progress last week in Great Falls. Now it's time for the Braves and Bravettes to gauge their improvement against Montana's best.

The Class AA state tennis tournament begins today in Bozeman with action split between Montana State University and Bozeman High School. Play begins at 8 this morning, concluding Saturday afternoon.

The Braves won the Northern AA divisional championship in Great Falls last week after finishing third a year ago.

Senior Travis Cattron was the Braves' lone representative at state in Billings last year. He's back as a top seed, only this time with plenty of friends.

Joining Cattron are Flathead singles player Wes Mathison (No. 3 seed) and doubles teams Josh Brann and Cody Harrison (No. 3) and Kevin Burfeind and Erik Skybak (No. 4).

The Bravettes took second at divisionals for the second straight year, but they are well represented in Bozeman with six entrants.

Flathead singles players Sara Newgard (No. 3) and Izzy Makman (No. 4) will compete for points, as will doubles tandems Alix Dixon and Hanna Hanes (No. 2) and Olivia Heinle and Rachel Sherrill (No. 4). Dixon and Hanes played at state the last two years as well.

Bozeman and Billings West were boys' co-champions last year.

CMR took last year's girls' title, topping Billings Senior, Missoula Hellgate, Bozeman and Billings West.

Flathead coach Buck Measure said this year's field is wide open as several teams shuffled lineup before divisionals, moving singles players to doubles and visa versa.

Measure hopes his top players make it through today with a couple of wins before assessing the rest of their draws and chances at individual titles.

"Our goal at this point is for the boys to be in the top four and the girls in the top five," he said.