Kudos to local athletes

The Daily Inter Lake

Whitefish's Colt Idol, Columbia Falls' Mackey Nolan and Libby's Joel Fuller have been named all-state in Class A basketball.

This is the third such honor for Idol, a 6-foot-3 senior who has verbally committed to play basketball at Montana State next season. He led Northwestern A in scoring with 20.3 points per game and is the school's boys basketball all-time leading scorer with 1,483 points. Steve Kastella (1970-71) held the former record of 1,369.

Idol helped the Bulldogs win the Northwestern A regular-season crown with a 14-4 overall record. The Bulldogs wound up second in the Northwestern A after defeating Polson in a divisional challenge game. Whitefish lost in the opening round to Dillon, which went on to outscore Columbia Falls 54-50 in the state championship.

Nolan averaged roughly 11 points per game in his senior season and led the turnaround Wildcats to the state title game. He averaged 16.7 points per game at the state tournament.

Fuller, a senior, averaged 11 points and helped the Loggers finish second in conference with a 13-5 overall record. Fuller is also a football standout who plans to attend Montana State next year.

Libby senior Conner Benson earned first-team all-conference honors along with Columbia Falls senior Grant Getts and Bigfork senior Brock Boll.

Northwestern A All Conference

First team

Colt Idol, senior, Whitefish (All state)

Mackey Nolan, senior, Columbia Falls (All state)

Grant Getts, senior, Columbia Falls

Joel Fuller, senior, Libby (All state)

Conner Benson, senior, Libby

Brock Boll, senior, Bigfork

Second team

Kyle Bagnell, sophomore, Polson

Tim Rausch, junior, Polson

Mike Fisher II, senior, Ronan

Aaron Tkachyk, senior, Whitefish

Dallas Courdier, senior, Ronan

Scott Taylor, senior, Bigfork

Mitchell Wassam, junior, Columbia Falls

Honorable mention

David FauntLeRoy, senior, Whitefish

Kyle Howell, junior, Columbia Falls

Nolan Harris, senior, Ronan

Craig Bagnell, senior, Polson

Colton Cannon, junior, Libby