Schweikert has made her mark in three sports for Wildkats

When it comes to high school sports, don’t ask Hannah Schweikert to pick just one.

The Columbia Falls High School senior has excelled in three sports during her career – basketball, volleyball and tennis.

“When I got to high school I pretty much set my eyes on what I wanted to do so I could just focus my energy on just those three and really excel in those,” Schweikert said.

Right now Schweikert is No. 2 in the state in scoring for Class A basketball with 129 points, and averages 14.3 points per game. She’s also No. 3 in the Northwest A conference in free-throw makes with a 72 percent average.

“She’s a kid that wants to score, which is a natural thing for her,” Wildkats’ coach Cary Finberg said. “This year what I like about her is she’s developed the other part of her game, she’s playing a lot better defense – focusing on the defensive side, focusing on rebounding. This year she’s taking it to the basket a little better, getting to the free-throw line. She’s developed in her whole game.”

Last year she earned second-team all-conference honors in basketball.

“Basketball is just crazy for me,” Schweikert said. “I just have a lot of energy and basketball is a way for me to put my life aside and just get everything out on the court. I just love to score and put the ball in the hoop, that really brings me joy. That’s always what I’m looking to do.”

Finberg describes Schweikert as “naturally quiet” but said she has become a more vocal leader over the years.

“She’s just a good kid,” Finberg said. “She’s a joy to be around.”

Schweikert played six games with the varsity team her freshman year. Finberg called the state tournament that year her “coming out party.” She had six points then, and has only continued to improve. She scored 56 her sophomore season and 212 as a junior, where she averaged 14.1 points per game.

She once played softball but chose tennis instead once high school started.

“Tennis really just kind of picked me,” she said. “My heart was just really in it.”

She finished third at the state tournament in 2019. Spring sports were cancelled last year, so there was no season in 2020.

College will be a different story, though, as she had to pick one sport. Schweikert committed to Carroll College last month, where she’ll be the setter on the volleyball team and major in civil engineering. With a 4.4 GPA, she also received an academic scholarship.

It wasn’t a tough decision to sign with Carroll.

“Recently volleyball was just what I threw myself into,” she said. “It just kind of came down that that was what I enjoyed the most. I took a tour of the school and played with the team. It just felt like a family and it felt like a really good fit and I saw myself playing there for the next four years.”

Her 162 career aces set a new Columbia Falls school record and she’s earned all-state and all conference honors in the sport.

Schweikert comes from athletic lineage – both her parents were college athletes and so are two of her older siblings. Her dad, Jaxon, coaches the Columbia Falls football team. Older sister KJ plays softball at the University of Providence and older brother Ike just graduated from Montana Tech, where he also played football. Her younger brother Cody is a freshman at CFHS, where he plays – you guessed it – football.

The Wildkats currently boast a 9-0 overall record and 5-0 conference record and are looking to return to the big dance. After six straight state tournament placings – including a 2017 state championship – Columbia Falls had a disappointing finish in 2020 going 16-4, losing to Dillon and (eventual divisional champion) Corvallis at the Western A divisionals.

“Our philosophy is once you get to the state tournament anything can happen,” Finberg said. “The hard part is getting there.”

Divisionals are scheduled for Feb. 25-27 in Butte. The state tournament is a couple weeks later, running March 11-13 at Butte’s Civic Center.

“This is my last year to play basketball,” Schweikert said. “There’s really not a lot of pressure and I can just leave everything on the court.”