Keeping Score: State champs, record breakers, and end of year accolades

Welcome everybody to the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors, I am Josh Amick. The spring season ended last week but I was traveling across country so this episode I am going to recap the highlights from the state tournaments for baseball, softball track & field as well as tennis, and next week we can focus on American Legion baseball and get you up to speed on their seasons, so without further ado let’s get into to last week’s highlights.

We are going to kick things off with track & field since it was right down the street at Legends Stadium and a lot of local athletes went home as the best in state. 

At the State AA track and field meet Friday, Hollensteiner finished a lap around his home track in 47.22 seconds. To say he won his second straight 400 title is an understatement: Leading an eight-pack of runners under 50 seconds, he shattered the 8-year-old all-class record in the event.  

His previous personal record was 48.10, run at the Archie Roe Invitational on May 3. Last week at divisionals, he false started. Friday, he was unbeatable. It was an impressive race for the Braves: Flathead senior Lane Chivers was second in 47.99; Ben Bliven took fifth, running 49.67.  

The 400 accounted for 20 of Flathead’s 34 points scored through nine events. Glacier, with Owen Thiel winning the 3,200, was second at 34.5. 

Aside from Thiel, Glacier got big points in the shot put, where Will Astle hit a PR of 53 feet, 3 inches to lead a 2-3-4 Wolfpack finish with Ben Winters and Dylan Smith and Glacier’s Ethan Kastelitz placed fourth in the javelin. 

Lauren Bissen’s win in the 3,200 was big for the Wolfpack; so was Breanna Barnes’ pole vault title.  

The senior cleared 11-6, a PR, and won the event for the 10th time in 12 meets this season. Barnes is the first girls pole vault champion from Glacier High.  

The Pack also got sixth place in the 400 from Carmen Eddy, and Alyssa Vollertsen and Dacie Benkelman went 4-5 in the 800. Allie Krueger was fifth in the shot put; Jaidyn Pevey took third in the high jump.  

While Hollensteiner impressed for Flathead on the boys side, Alivia Rinehart shined on the girls. Rinehart set one all-class record and two AA marks while the Flathead boys surged to their first team title since 2015 on Saturday. 

Rinehart started her day by going over the 100-meter hurdles in 14.06 seconds. That broke the 12-year-old all-class record of 14.11.  She didn’t slow down much after that. She lowered the Class AA mark in the 300 hurdles to 42.07 and blazed through the 200 in 24.54. Rinehart finished the day with three new state records.  

The team race came down to the final event, the 1,600-meter relay. The Braves needed to stay within one place of Helena High, and had to do it without Bliven, who was hurt while finishing second.  

Coach Dan Hodge had decided he needed to rework the long relay. Hodge went with senior Cameron Wells, who ran the first leg; Lane Chivers moved from first leg to third.  Helena led the first lap and was four places ahead of Flathead when Chivers took the baton from Kasen Kastner.   

Lane had work to do, but his 49.5-second split moved the Braves up from sixth to third. Then came Hollensteiner, who had Helena’s anchor in sight. His split, according to Hodge: a blistering 45.93 seconds. He passed Helena’s Henry Sund on the back straightaway and then, incredibly, kept closing the rest of what had been a 50-meter gap with Missoula Big Sky’s anchor and passed him for the lead at the very end. 

Flathead finished with 88 points to 81 for Helena. 

In Class A track and field, it was the Whitefish Bulldogs who came out on top with the help of Rachel Wilmot and Grace Sliman. Wilmot completed a sprint sweep. 

Sliman won the high jump Saturday with a personal record, as Whitefish claim        ed the girls team title, their first since 2022 and sixth overall. 

Whitefish’s other big gun was senior Simon Douglas, who won Saturday’s 800 and on Friday he was second in the 1,600.  

Whitefish scored 40 points to finish fifth in the boys team race. Columbia Falls, with Jack Phelps taking second in the 100 and fourth in the 200, was fourth at 55.  

The Wildcats also picked up a win with Lane Voermans in the discus on Friday.  

Moving on to softball, you can never question the heart of the Wolfpack. Olivia Warriner hit two walk-off singles, three home runs — including a seventh-inning grand slam of the second championship game against Billings Senior — and Glacier won three times Saturday to claim its second AA softball title in three years.   

Warriner started the morning off with an eighth inning walk-off single as the Wolfpack bested Billings West 7-6 in a rematch of their first-round game, which the Golden Bears won.  

She did it again in the seventh against Senior in the first game of the championship, giving Glacier a 13-12 victory. The Wolfpack needed eight innings again in game two, but a Cazz Rankosky sacrifice fly put Glacier ahead before Warriner added an insurance run with a single that scored Nakiah Persinger, and the Pack won the “if game” 17-15. 

Four runs in the sixth gave the Broncs a 12-10 lead before three singles loaded the bases for Warriner in the top of the seventh. She knocked one over the left field fence to give Glacier a 14-12 advantage. Taylor Vivian drove in one more on an RBI groundout and Glacier just needed to get three outs but Senior tied it up 15-15.  

In the eighth, Rankosky stepped in after a Khirsten Terrell Walk and Persinger double and flied to left, deep enough to bring in Terrell and give Glacier a 16-15 lead. Warriner then laced a grounder to left and brought in Persinger to extend the lead to 17-15.  

Gibbons stepped back into the circle and retired the Senior side in order to send Glacier home with its third piece of hardware in three years, and second title. 

In baseball, A walk-off walk ends the Columbia Falls baseball dream of third place at the All-Class State Baseball Tournament Saturday.  

Brady DeMoss held off in a 3-2 count and drew a seven-pitch free pass to bring in the winning run for Hamilton in the ninth inning of a loser-out game. After losing the tournament opener the Wildcats fought back to get to the podium but came up just short and finished the season with an amazing 18-3 record.  

In tennis, the Whitefish boys won the state title on the backs of Jack Oehlerich’s second place and fellow singles player Owen Erickson’s fifth place finish piloted the Bulldogs to the team title with 21 points. 

Leading the way for the Bulldog girls was Maggie Mercer and Camry Kelch, who finished third in the girls doubles competition, Liesl Brust placed fifth in girls singles and as a team the girls took home a third-place title with 20 points. 

For Class AA the Wolfpack boys placed two sixth-place individual performances with Sam Engellant and Carl Bitney and finished sixth as a team.  

Some hardware was passed out last week as well with Polson and Columbia Falls, the two teams that ruled the top of the Northwest A conference, each had four softball players selected All-State in voting by league coaches. 

Liz Cunningham, Samantha Rensvold, Olivia Jore and Sierra Perez were first-team — and thus All-State — picks for the 19-7-1 Lady Pirates.  Columbia Falls, which went 3-2 at the State A tournament to finish the season 18-8, had Annika Reid, Tayler Lingle, Addy Bowler and Onnika Lawrence named All-State.   

Rensvold, Lingle and Lawrence were all-state for the second-straight season and with Lawrence only being a sophomore she has a chance to make all-state in all of her four years played. 

For Class AA awards, the Glacier Wolfpack had six players named All-State by the Western AA softball coaches this week. That's one Glacier player for each do-or-die victory at the State AA tournament.  

Seniors Olivia Gibbons, Cazz Rankosky, Nakiah Persinger and Aubree Gerber, along with sophomore Olivia Warriner and freshman Ava Grady, all received first-team All-Western AA recognition.  Khristen Terrell and Karley Allen made the all-state second team. 

Flathead’s Mackenzie Brandt and Olivia Nyman were All-State selections as well. Brandt, a senior outfielder, hit .317 and led the Bravettes with eight home runs and 21 RBIs.  

Nyman, a sophomore shortstop, hit .327 with five homers and 16 RBIs. She was honored as a utility player. Catcher Reese Conley was an honorable mention. 

Elsewhere, Flathead’s Dan Hodge, Matt Beckwith of Whitefish and Glacier High’s Abby Snipes are among those honored as Coach of the Year for their respective spring sports by the Montana Coaches Association. 

Hodge and Beckwith won state titles as track and field coaches as Snipers earned her honor as the Wolfpacks softball coach. 

Well, that is going to wrap up this week’s episode of the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors. 

Thank you to everyone who has tuned in for the spring season and congratulations to all the teams and players who took home titles this season, I enjoyed being a part of it. We will see you all next week on another episode of Keeping Score. Until then, take care.  

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