Welcome everybody to the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors, I am your host, Josh Amick. This week we have another crosstown matchup between Flathead and Glacier, this time in tennis, Columbia Falls baseball clinch the North conference and the softball regular season wraps up with a few of the local Valley teams advancing to divisionals. So, without further ado, let’s get into last week’s highlights you might have missed. 

Going to kick things off with tennis this week as a crosstown tennis matchup ended in favor of Glacier as they won seven of the eight matches. 

Flathead got wins from No. 1 singles player Holden Askvig for the boys side and No. 3 Allie Goff on the girls. 

Leilani Lennarz, Autumn Bashara and Lindsey Lemler picked up wins in girls singles for the Pack, as did all four doubles squads that competed.   

Glacier’s Sam Engellant, Aiden Lamb and Westen Heller all won boys singles matches. Engellant was extended to three sets by Flathead’s Rowen Alexander before winning the third 6-1.  The Wolfpack are now 8-2-1 in doubles. Flathead’s boys dropped to 4-8-0. Glacier’s girls improved to 8-1-2 in duals and the Bravettes fell to 1-9-3. 

Rowan Alexander nabbed a pair of victories Friday, but Flathead tennis fell in duals to Gallatin and Bozeman at FVCC in high school tennis. Allie Goff claimed a win for the Bravettes with a third set tiebreak over Gallatin’s Jane Edwards.   

Elsewhere in tennis, Ainsley Grubb grabbed a pair of wins, one in singles and another in doubles as Whitefish girls tennis capped off a perfect 15-0 record in duals for the 2025 season.  Grubb paired up with Camry Kelch in the Bulldogs 6-1 win over Corvallis, then she went solo in a 5-2 dual decision over Hamilton. Congratulations to the Bulldogs on an outstanding regular season.  

Crosstown wasn’t the only rival matchup last week, as the Columbia Falls Wildcats went on the road to Smith Fields and swept the season series against Whitefish with 12-0 victory that officially secured the Wildcats the top seed in the North Conference. 

Jett Pitts set the tone on the mound, pitching a complete game two-hit shutout, both hits to Tait Orme on his way to the victory. He fanned six across five innings as the game was called early due to the run rule.   

Freshman Jaxon Cadwell started the scoring for the Cats in the second inning, when he singled home a run after Boyer walked the bases loaded. Cadwell added an RBI double in a 6-run fifth inning that helped the Cats pull away late.  

Columbia Falls would beat Troy on Saturday 14-0 and Polson 9-4 on Monday to finish the season 15-1 and currently riding a 10-game winning streak. Hopefully they can keep it going once the state tournament starts. 

Whitefish dropped their following game on Saturday with Bigfork 9-2. Mason Lewis doubled home two runs during a six-run frame for the Vikings (13-4 overall, 13-2 in North games) and put Bigfork ahead 4-1.  Lewis also went the distance on the mound for Bigfork, allowing five hits and two earned runs. He fanned a pair of batters. Finn Ryan and Luke Dalen picked up the RBIs for Whitefish. 

Elsewhere in baseball, The Kalispell AA Lakers didn’t have the greatest start to their Saturday but put together a solid finish. Brady Buckmaster and Luke Nikunen made sure of it. 

Nikunen hit a solo home run in the first inning, Buckmaster hit an RBI double in the second and the two combined on a three-hit shutout in the Lakers’ 2-0 win over Helena in the second game of a Legion doubleheader.   

That salvaged a split for the Lakers at Griffin Field. They opened with a 13-0 loss to the Senators, helped along by five Kalispell errors. An 11-run second inning set the tone for Helena, which ended the game in five innings under the mercy rule.   

It was already 5-0 before the Lakers committed their second error of the second inning. Five more hitters came to the plate, with Tanner Steen’s two-run single making it 11-0. 

In game two, Buckmaster started and threw five innings, allowing two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Nikunen got the save, allowing one hit and two walks in two innings.  

The duo won a pitchers’ duel with Helena’s Eli Peterson — he struck out nine in 5 2-3 innings. Each team collected just three hits, and the Lakers improved to 9-4 on season. 

Moving on to softball, Flathead’s season came to an end after not qualifying for state but not before they picked up some wins to end the year on a high note.  

Olivia Nyman clubbed a grand slam, and Kinsey Lake hit a sacrifice fly to break a 5-5 tie, and the Flathead Bravettes knocked off Missoula Sentinel 7-5 Tuesday. Nyman’s home run erased a 4-0 deficit in the third inning for the Bravettes. She added a leadoff single in seventh and came around to score for the go-ahead run.  

Nyman wasn’t done there. She hit another home run, Macey McIlhargey scored on a passed ball in the eighth inning and the Bravettes scored a season-ending, walk-off 5-4 softball win over Missoula Hellgate Thursday. 

Lacey Franklin went the distance in the circle for Flathead, which improved to 3-11 in Western AA games and 4-16 overall. The Bravettes won their second straight but finished seventh in the league to close out their season. 

The Wolfpack clinched state in their lone softball matchup last week. Taylor Vivian’s three-run home run put Glacier ahead, and Ava Grady’s relief pitching kept Missoula Sentinel at bay Thursday in the Wolfpack’s 14-11 win.  

Glacier mounted their comeback on two doubles and three runs scored from Nakiah Persinger, and two runs each from Olivia Gibbons, Vivian, Aubree Gerber and Kaydee Walcheck. Up 11-10, Glacier got three more runs in the sixth with Persinger’s RBI double delivering the big blow and came in on Olivia Warriner’s sacrifice fly.     

The Wolfpack, 16-3 overall and 11-3 in Western AA games, nailed down the No. 2 seed out of the West into the State AA tournament, which is May 22-24 in Great Falls.  Helena High has clinched the top seed.   

The Wildkats picked up a pair of wins at the Laverne Combo on Friday, beating Havre 6-3 and Lockwood 9-4. Addy Bowler had four hits for the Wildkats, including a triple that drove in three runs in the sixth inning. Sydney Burke three hits. Kylie Gjesdal-Davis, Tayler Lingle and Annika Reid all had two hits on their way to the game one victory. 

Game two lasted just four innings because of the time limit, but that was enough time for Lingle to rap out three hits and score three times. Onnika Lawrence had a double, a triple and two RBIs for the Kats, who had 12 hits total; Reid had two hits, including a double; Bella Mann had a double and drove in two. 

Last sport to highlight is track, Flathead’s William Hollensteiner won two events Thursday, which along with some fine performances in the jumps gave the Braves the team title at the Last Chance Quad track and field meet.  

Flathead swept the meet, which provided many athletes a chance to meet the Montana High School Association’s state qualifying marks. Tim Zundel added a win in the long jump, teammate Henry Steurer cleared 12-0 to win the pole vault and Carson Thorne won the 3,200 as Flathead piled up 110 points to 77 for second-place Whitefish. The Bravettes also won their event with 96 points with Whitefish finishing second with 81.5. 

Leading Flathead were freshman Nova Miller in the pole vault, Claire Jensen in the 800, Bristol Lenz in the 100 hurdles and Naomi Miller in the 300 hurdles.   

The host Bulldog boys had a day: Riley Zetooney, Colby Minton and Simon Douglas led a sprint sweep, and Carson Gulick won the 110 hurdles.  Douglas notably hit a personal record in the 400, clocking 51.54 seconds. 

Whitefish’s Rachael Wilmot ran to wins in the 100 and 200 meters and Columbia Falls’ rode Lane Voermans, Oliver Kress and depth to the boys team title, to highlight the Nelson-Thomas ABC meet held Saturday.  

The Bulldogs’ Gulick lowered his best time in the 110 hurdles to 15.66, while Bigfork’s Austin Savik clocked 39.80 through the 300 hurdles. The Vikings’ Tamret Savik hit his PR again in the triple jump at 45-6. Easton Brooks of Columbia Falls was second at 42-11, another PR. Savik sits No. 2 in Class; Brooks is now fifth.   

That is going to wrap up this week’s episode of the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors. Join us next week as the state tournaments begin heating up with many teams in the Valley still alive with hopes of winning it all. 

Good luck to all those teams in the postseason and we will see you all next week on another episode of the Keeping Score podcast.  

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