Engellant, Rudbach fall in AA doubles final

BOZEMAN — The second time was not the charm.

Glacier’s doubles pairing of Sam Engellant and Will Rudbach fell to Great Falls CMR’s Josh Stimac and Eli Crist in the boys doubles final at the State AA Tennis Tournament Friday 6-0, 6-2.

The Rustler’s pairing also defeated Engellant and Rudbach at the Northern AA divisional a week ago in Kalispell.

The Glacier duo defeated CMR’s Aedan Bingham and Connor Sherman in the semifinals.

Friday’s play moved outside to Gallatin High School after Thursday’s play ran well into Saturday morning at the MSU indoor facility.

The Wolfpack girls doubles pairing of Haven Speer and Sarah Downs finished in fifth place for the tournament after dropping their semifinal and consolation semifinal early Friday.

The duo battled back to defeat CMR’s Marianne Hawley and Quincy Weymouth in straight sets. Missoula Hellgate’s Lane Bazinger and Brooke Best won the bracket after defeating Downs and Speer in the semifinal.

The Glacier girls finished in eighth in the team competition with seven points. Hellgate won the girls championship with 37 points, and Billings Skyview (17), and Bozeman (14) rounded out the top three.

Glacier’s boys finished in fifth in the team competition with 14 points. The CMR Rustlers claimed the title with 28 points, followed by Gallatin and Bozeman in a tie for second with 20 points each and Billings West in fourth with 16 points.

Hellgate claimed a girls sweep: Elliote Banziger won the singles final to go with the Knights’ team and doubles victories.

Gallatin’s Mason McCarty took the win in the boys singles competition.