Briefs: MHSA honors Flathead’s Kay

HELENA — The Montana High School Associated honored Flathead’s Julie Kay as its Outstanding Leadership Award winner for spring of 2025-26.  

“Julia leads with service, commitment and impact,” an Instagram post by the MHSA posted Friday reads. “As a senior at Flathad High School and a captain on two teams, Kay goes beyond competition to uplift others, from hosting extra practices and mentoring teammates to coaching youth, supporting famlies in need and serving the community.” 

A three-sport athlete, Kay won the Class AA 130-pound title at the state wrestling tournament in Billings in February.  

Last fall she quarterbacked Flathead’s flag football team to a third-place finish at the state tournament. This spring she joined the Bravettes’ track and field program and has a top 14 time in Class AA over the 200 meters (26.33 seconds).

Zetooney, Ells part of record relays for UM

POCATELLO, Idaho — A pair of Whitefish sprinters, sophomore Brooke Zetooney and senior Mikenna Ells, helped Montana set a pair of school records in the relays at last weekend’s Bengal Invitational track and field meet. 

On Saturday the team of Zetooney, Rileigh McGree, Lily Meskers, and Callie Wilson ran a time of 44.66 seconds to win the 400-meter relay. The time is inside the top 40 in the region overall and close to the top 20 if you remove duplicate times from the same school. 

The old record wasn’t very old: Tara Ohwiler, Ells, Meskers and Wilson ran 44.78 on March 28 at the Al Manuel Invitational. 

The Grizzlies subbed Sophie Clark and Ells into the 1,600 relay alongside Zetooney and Meskers and cruised to the win in 3:36.25, some 17 seconds better than UM’s No. 2 team. Despite the lack of competition they shattered the record of 3:37.75, set in 2025 by the quartet of Clark, Ells, Meskers and Whitney Morrison. 

In addition Meskers and Ells both ran under UM’s existing open 400 meters record of 53.21 by Kourtney Danreuther in 2012. Meskers won it in 52.80; Ells ran 53.08.  

Whitefish's Wilde wins Grizzly Cup

MISSOULA — Erin Wilde of Whitefish and Tom Bittner of Neusaess, Germany were named winners of the Grizzly Cup, as the top overall women’s and men’s student athletes at the University of Montana. 

Bittner recently completed his final season on the UM men’s tennis team, in which he achieved the highest ranking (No. 9 in the region) by a player in Griz tennis history while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. He was recently named first-team all-Big Sky Conference for a third time and was the 2026 Big Sky MVP. 

Wilde is in the final weeks of her collegiate career, during which she has won six Big Sky high jump titles for UM’s track and field program. She owns school records for both the indoor and outdoor season; she’s the only woman to clear 6 feet for the Grizzlies, and seven times she’s been Academic All-Big Sky. 

The awards were announced at the annual Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet last Tuesday, which acknowledged the over 250 UM athletes who achieved at least a 3.0 grade-point average over the previous year. 

The award began in 1921 and after a 21-year absence was reinstituted for both sexes in 2009.