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Briefs: Utter, Gilliard sign with Western football

by Daily Inter Lake
| February 8, 2023 12:00 AM

Bryce Gilliard, a standout tight end at Bigfork, and Caleb Utter, a a linebacker at Eureka, both signed to play football with Montana Western on Feb. 1.

Gilliard will play tight end with the Bulldogs of the Frontier Conference, after earning All-State honors in Class B as a junior and senior. He had 14 catches for 295 yards and three touchdowns last fall for the 10-1 Vikings. The year before he helped them reach the State B championship.

Utter was All-State at linebacker his junior year, and was a member of Eureka’s 2019 state championship squad In 2021 he had a team-high 93 tackles while also running for 1,104 yards at quarterback. He missed his senior season after suffering a torn ACL last summer.

Also among Western’s 57 signees is Canyon Sargent, who played running back and linebacker and helped Mission to the 8-man title game last fall.

Knapton, Rodriguez ink with MSU-Northern

Ethan Rodriguez, a standout two-way lineman at Bigfork, and Allec Knapton, a three-sport standout at Columbia Falls, have signed to play football at MSU-Northern.

Rodriguez, a 250-pounder, is signed to play defensive line. He was Bigfork’s top tackler on the line last fall and helped the Viking offense average 216 rushing yards a game in 2022 and 233 in 2021.

Knapton, a 2021 Columbia Falls grad, is a mid-year addition for the Lights at tight end and punter after joining the National Guard out of high school.

They are two of 25 MSU-Northern spring signees, and Lights’ coach Jerome Souers said he intended to sign a dozen more players.

Farrier, Duval headed to Carroll College

Columbia Falls receiver Jace Duval and Bigfork running back Joe Farrier signed letters of intent to play football at Carroll College last week.

Duval was second on the pass-happy Wildcats in receiving yards (438) and yards per catch (15.1) last season; in 2021 eight of his 19 catches (for 393 yards) went for touchdowns.

Farrier led the Vikings with 874 yards (6.5 a carry) and 16 touchdowns rushing last fall; for his Bigfork career he rumbled for 1,441 yards and 22 touchdowns. He’ll join 2020 and 2021 Bigfork grads Logan Gilliard and Cormac Benn on the Saints’ roster.

Several area spikers Academic All-Frontier

Three volleyball players each from Kalispell and Columbia Falls, including Glacier High products Kaylee Fritz and Kali Gulick, earned Frontier Conference all-academic team honors for 2022.

To be eligible, the student-athlete must be at least a sophomore and hold a 3.25 cumulative grade-point average.

Gulick plays for Montana Tech and Fritz for Western; Madde Boles out of Flathead High was an all-academic pick for Carroll, which tied Providence with 15 such honorees.

The full list can be found of frontierconference.com.

Frontier All-Academic Volleyball

Carroll College

Madde Boles, Kalispell, sr., Business Management and Marketing

Hannah Schweikert, Columbia Falls, so., Civil Engineering Broadfield

MSU-Northern

Marlee Bender, Whitefish, sr., Nursing

Montana Tech

Kali Gulick, Kalispell, sr. Business & Information Technology

Montana Western

Kaylee Fritz, Kalispell, so., Kinesiology

Morgan Stenger, Columbia Falls, sr., Health & Human Performance

University of Providence

Madysen Hoerner, Columbia Falls, so., Biology

Madeline McCrea, Ronan, so., Biology