Malta, Saco golfers at state

The golf season has come to an end for local Phillips County schools. Saco, Whitewater and Malta schools were all represented on the state levels of their respective classes.

The highest placer was Cyra Mears of Saco, who tied for thirteenth in the Girls C Meet in Hamilton on May 18.

Mears had a score of 217 after two days. She scored a 105 on day one and a 112 on day two. Teammate Jamison Schaaf had a score of 126 on day one and 123 on day two, giving her a total of 249.

Whitewater's Layne Engel shot a score of 107 on day one and a 111 on day two giving him a total of 218.

The Malta Boys team took twelfth at the 2016 State B Tournament in Huntley last Wednesday. The event was played at beautiful Pryor Creek last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Malta scored 409 on day one and 367 on day two giving them a total of 776. Bigfork won the event with a score of 327 on day one and 330 on day two for a total of 657. Huntley was second with a total of 611 strokes and Shelby was third with a total of 662.

"My goal was to have the boys team qualify for state," Coach Lynne Nevrivy said. "So we reached our goal and qualified for state."

Libby's Ryggs Johnston, a freshman, won the event with an impressive score of 131 over the course of two full games. He had a score of 68 on day one and 63 on day two for a total of 131. His score set a new record for a state meet in any class.

Malta was led by Keenan VanWichen who had a score 172 over the two day event and tied for thirty-second overall. VanWichen scored 89 on day one and 83 on day two. VanWichen was the first of three Mustangs to earn All-Division honors after tying for fifth in the Divisional meet on Monday, April 9.

Cru Darrah tied for fifty-fifth with a total of 189 strokes. He had 100 strokes on day one and 89 strokes on day two. Darrah also earned All-Division honors after tying for tenth place in the Divisional meet.

"The kids came along and a couple of them golfed the best they've golfed and after they were done, Cru said that he figured out the last week of golf that he didn't have to try to kill it," Coach Nevrivy said. "He said he was hitting them long and straight, so I was proud of him."

Landon VanWichen tied for sixty-second with a total on 195 strokes. He had a score of 107 on day one and 88 on day two. He also earned All-Division honors after tying for twelfth at the divisional meet.

Grant O'Brien placed seventy-first with 220 strokes. He had a score of 113 on day one and 107 on day two.

"Grant has struggled all year but things will come around for him," Coach Nevrivy said. "He just had an off year, he will get better."

Grayson Waters placed seventy-fourth with a total of 246 strokes. He had 118 strokes on day one and 128 strokes on day two.

"It was good experience for a freshman, his first state tournament," Coach Nevrivy said of Waters. "He was a little in awe at times of everything that was going on."

Coach Nevrivy admitted that the team may have struggled with the elements that week, noting that in their practice it was windy.

"We had a very very windy practice round on Monday," she said. "It was a little hard to determine things and how far you could hit the ball in the wind."

She went on to say that the days of the meet were beautiful.

The M-ettes Golf team missed out of the state tournament after losing a chip off for the last spot. But the team should be back next season and ready to make a splash.

"The Shelby coach said that by all means, we had the talent but we just didn't have the experience," Nevrivy said. "We played Wolf Point and they were all seniors and juniors."

She went on to say that the Shelby coach said if the young M-ettes were to stick around for a few years they would be tough.

"That was nice to hear," Coach Nevrivy said.