Tracking Brenneman champ

Tess Brenneman’s favorite high school sporting moment came on the pitch.

“My freshman year we beat Glacier in a shootout to go to state,” she said.

“We had a huge crowd there.”

Soccer is also the sport that will help pay for her education. The three-sport Flathead High School star accepted academic and athletic scholarships to the University of Montana in Feburary.

The 5-foot-8, 145-pound defender was a Class AA all-state selection her final three seasons and captured all-conference honors four times.

But Brenneman will most likely be best remembered by student-athletes and Flathead coaches and fans for her track and field achievements.

The senior set a new Bravettes career scoring mark this season with her 818 1/4 total.

The old mark was 773 1/2 points set by Halladay Quist from 2000-2003.

Brenneman entered the track season with 615 points and passed Quist with her 44-point divisional performance, where she took firsts in the long jump and 200 and placed second in the 100, 300 hurdles and 400.

She also set two school records at divisionals — the 400 (57.14) and 300 hurdles (43.22).

Brenneman went on to compete in seven events at state, placing in five and scoring 24 1/2 points. She won the long jump (18-9) and took fourth in the 400 (58.41) on a damp, frigid first day in Butte. She came back to place third in the 300 hurdles (45.44), sixth in the 200 (26.69) and ran a leg on the third-place 1,600 relay on the final day.

She did not place in the 100, or with the 400 relay.

“She’s a once-in-a-lifetime athlete,” her long jump coach Joe Sullivan said.

“You don’t get too many athletes who come along with her ability and commitment.

“I’ve coached for close to 30 years and I’ve never had a jumper over 18 feet,” Sullivan said in his specialty.

“She does it consistently.”

Sullivan said her winning distance in the long jump at state would have placed her third at the Big Sky Conference meet this spring.

“She has great strength and stamina,” he said.

“For her, a lot of times her better jumps came late (in a meet). A lot of kids will get a good one early on and peter out. She would get stronger as she progressed.”

Sullivan said even after Brenneman ran the grueling 300 hurdles, she would head back to the long jump and uncork a dandy.

Ironically enough, her best long jump at state was on her final attempt when she already had the title wrapped up.

“It loosens her up,” he said of the hurdle race.

“Got the juices going.

“She puts a lot of pressure on herself,” he said.

“Every time she steps on the runway or gets into the blocks, she has to win it. There are so many good athletes out there, it’s hard for her to enjoy that moment.”

Brenneman ran the 300 hurdles for the first time this spring on the encouragement of a coach.

“I said it looked fun and I’d at least give it a shot,” she said.

“That’s when I quit high jumping.”

Her best in that event was 5-2. She cleared that for the first time in eighth grade and never seemed to improve in that event. For Brenneman, that was rare.

“Just very remarkable in her commitment,” Sullivan said.

“The secret to her success was in the offseason. She never missed a workout during the summer.

“She continued to excel and make herself better all the time,” he continued.

“Very competitive, very driven, very focused.

“She’s a quality person,” Sullivan concluded.

“She’s very grounded. She’s not a superstar in her mind. She just goes out and does her job.”

Brenneman has not completely ruled out competing in two sports at Montana.

“I guess they (track coaches) talked to the soccer coach,” Brenneman said.

“They said I could just do the long jump if I wanted to. If I am interested, I could call them up and then see if it works out.”

Brenneman says basketball was her favorite sport of the three she excelled in. She was a four-year starter and point guard, however, her teams never experienced much success.

She was a second-team all-conference selection her junior and senior seasons.

“I like basketball and soccer better,” she said when asked about participating in track.

“Oh gosh ... that’s tough (to pick one over the other). I had more opportunities in soccer. It’s been hard on me knowing that I won’t be playing basketball again.”

Brenneman said she did receive an offer for basketball and soccer from Rocky Mountain College.

“It was tempting,” she said.

“I kind of like the U of M atmosphere.”

She also looked at Eastern Washington, Colorado, Colorado State and Concordia College in St. Paul, Minn.

“I will miss the people,” Brenneman said of her FHS classmates and fellow athletes, “but the experience I had with sports will always stay with me. That’s what I will always remember.”