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Wolfpack Teams, Flathead Girls Advance to State Golf Tournament

Glacier boys, Flathead’s Epperly dominate; Mercer comes up short.

By Micah Drew

After two days of rain and wind in Anaconda the Glacier High boys and Butte High girls won the Western AA divisional golf invitational.

Butte teammates Kodie Hoagland and Ella Prigge were tied for the lead shooting 84 on the first day of competition and ended up first and second overall to lead the Bulldogs to the team title.

Hoagland shot 82 on her second day to finish two strokes ahead of Prigge. Flathead’s Marcella Mercer took a surprising third, three strokes back from Hoagland. This was the first time during the high school season that Mercer has not taken medalist honors.

Butte (718) finished 64 strokes clear of the field, followed by Helena Capital (782) in second. Flathead (824) and Glacier (832) rounded out the top four.

Ezra Epperly of Flathead High took medalist honors on the boys’ side, firing a 149 to finish two strokes up on Kade McDonough of Sentinel (151). Helena Capital’s Caswell Bloomquist took third (152).

After the first day, the Wolfpack had a two-stroke lead over Missoula Sentinel in the boys race, lead by Tyler Avery who shot 76. Glacier expanded that into a 20-stroke lead to take the top slot in the team race with a total of (626), with all five golfers shooting rounds in the 70s and finishing in the top 10.

Missoula Sentinel (646), and Helena Capital (648) took the next two spots and with a strong second day performance, Missoula Hellgate surged past Flathead to eke out the final qualifying spot into the state tournament.

The top four boys and girls teams, as well as the top 10 individual finishers not on qualified teams, advance to next week’s Class AA state golf tournament in Missoula.

From the Eastern AA divisional tournament, Bozeman, Billings West, Billings Senior and Billings Skyview all advanced to state on the girls side while Gallatin, Billings Senior, Billings West and CMR advanced for the boys.

See the results for the boys and girls.