BUTTE — With the fall sports season quickly speeding through, Class AA golf will start their state tournament Thursday at the Butte Country Club.
The Kalispell Glacier boys will look to three-peat under Jim Ness’ second year at the helm of the program, while Bozeman Gallatin girls will aim to capture back-to-back titles. The last time a girls team accomplished this was 2022-23, when Billings Senior did so. As for the boys, the last time a team achieved a three-peat was Billings West in its 2013-2016 run, when the Golden Bears went on a four-year championship spree.
The Wolfpack present a double-threat on both the girls and boys teams: Luke Nelson and Torren Murray for the boys, and Maggie Mitton and Kendall Tkachyk for the girls.
Look out for potential upsets, though, as Great Falls CMR’s Jack Pinski enters the state tournament as the Eastern AA champion, and Missoula Big Sky’s Zoey Loberg, winner of the girls Western AA divisional, as well as Billings Senior’s Payton Tryan and Belgrade’s Lilia Troxel, will all look to take down the Wolfpack.
State AA golf
Oct. 2-3
Butte Country Club
2024 individual champions: Missoula Sentinel’s Hudson Goroski (boys), Great Falls’ Hanna Boyd and Billings Senior’s Becca Washington (girls, tied for first)
2024 team champions: Kalispell Glacier (boys), Bozeman Gallatin (girls)
The Eastern AA divisional tournament, held at Eagle Falls Golf Club in Great Falls last weekend, produced identical standings in the top two: both Bozeman girls and boys earned first, while Bozeman Gallatin girls and boys earned second. Billings West got fourth place for both boys and girls, as well.
Over in the Western AA standings, there’s not as much symmetry in the standings outside of Kalispell Glacier and Missoula Big Sky sharing spots in the top four for both boys and girls.
This could lead to a shake up of things at the state tournament, where the past couple years of golf has cycled the same strong contenders. For the girls, Glacier, Billings Senior, Billings West and Bozeman Gallatin have been the dominant forces at state, whereas for the boys, it’s been Glacier, Missoula Sentinel and Bozeman lurking in the top.
If history and patterns are any indication of what’s to come, it’s reasonable to expect any one of these programs to end up on top. There are a few other schools who performed well at divisionals who would be interested to play spoiler, including Helena Capital, Great Falls CMR and Missoula Big Sky for the boys and Helena for the girls.
The Wolfpack girls and boys swept their competition, consisting of Western AA and A schools, at the Butte High Golf Invitational, the last regular-season tournament ahead of the postseason. Great Falls CMR boys and girls secured second place, but the margin between Glacier and CMR girls was wide – 156-over-par for the Wolfpack, 206-over-par for the Rustlers – compared to the boys, which was won by just a margin of nine strokes over par. Helena girls earned fourth overall after Dillon, but third in AA.
Glacier girls maintained that dominance at Western AA divisional, winning with a total score of 718 – a big jump from second place Helena’s 760. The race for the girls state title might not be so tight with the Wolfpack, led by Mitton and Tkachyk, on a strong streak.
A different story might be told for the boys side; the Glacier boys earned second at their divisional tournament, falling just three points behind Missoula Sentinel’s 587. Over in the east, Bozeman won with a score of 596 and Gallatin came in second with 600.
The first glimpses of how the state titles might be won will begin to reveal themselves Thursday, but expect tight races all around and two days of the state’s best golfers.
Bria Manning is the sports editor of The Montana Standard. Follow her on X at @briaamanning or contact her at bria.manning@406mtsports.com
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