Polson Pirates place second in State A Tennis Championships

The Polson Pirates took second as a team at the MHSA State A Tennis Championships at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell on May 23-24. Billings Central won the team championship with 27 points to Polson’s 18.

Torin Ellis placed second for Polson in the singles bracket, defeating Hardin’s Jameson Noteboom 6-0, 6-2 to make the championship.

Ellis started the tournament by downing Butte Central’s Owen McPartland 6-0, 6-0 and then following that up by defeating the Northeast’s No. 1 seed Jake Larson of Miles City 6-1, 6-2. In the championship match, he fell to Libby’s Ryan Beagle 7-6, 6-0.

Ronan’s Beau Decker won his first-round matchup against Stevensville’s Angus Trangmoe, 6-3, 6-3, and then fell to Noteboom, 6-4, 6-0. In the consolation bracket, he downed Miles City’s Owen Schieffert 6-3, 6-1, before bowing out in his next consolation matchup, losing to Whitefish’s Jack Oehlerich 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

In doubles action, Otto Lund and Tate Barentsen placed fifth. They started the tournament defeating Dillon’s Jon Hernandez-Puga and Carson Fluckiger 6-2, 6-1, before falling to the Southeast’s No. 1 seed Darek Blankenship and William Noteboom of Hardin 6-3, 6-4.

They moved through the consolation bracket, defeating Whitefish’s Buren Brust and Jesse Burrough 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-1. They fell in the consolation semifinal to Mason Kelch and Dane Hunt 6-1, 6-1 before defeating Columbia Falls’ Logan Heuepel and Will Pickard 6-4, 7-5.

On the girls’ side, the Lady Pirates tied for fourth, and was the highest-placing Northwest A squad on the podium.

Polson’s Katie Smith and Julia Barnard placed second in doubles at state, defeating Hardin’s Taiya Guptill and Johanna Limberhand from Hardin in the state semifinals 6-2, 6-4.

Smith and Barnard started the tournament off defeating Glendive’s Piper Knoll and Bridget Litwiller 6-0, 6-0. In the championship match, they fell to Billings’ Central’s Evie Reck and Billie Cate Schmitt 6-4, 6-3.

    Polson’s Katie Smith and Julia Barnard placed second in doubles at at the state tournament in Kalispell last weekend. (Bob Gunderson photo)