Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Sports at a Glance

All stories by Jean Schurman

Nagel is state's best at 145

Victor Lady Pirates advance

Yellowjackets sting Blue Devils

Florence wins last two of season

Taylor Nagel won the 145 weight division at the Montana State Class A wrestling tournament on Saturday in Billings. He did it by defeating Billy Johnson of Polson, a wrestler Nagel has matched up against since they both were in Little Guy Wrestling. As with every other match these two have had, this was a close match with Nagel taking the 2-1 decision.

Nagel began his quest for the championship with a pin over Chazz Racine of Browning. He next pinned Tyler Frohlich of Butte Central in the quarter finals in 4:28. Nagel defeated Ethan Hinebach of Havre with an 11-6 decision in the semi finals.

Corvallis finished fourth in team scoring behind Havre (239), Frenchtown (157 ‡), and Polson (147 ‡). Corvallis had 125 points. Hamilton finished with 78 points.

Other top finishers for the Blue Devils Landon DellaSilva at 130 pounds who finished fourth, Bo Davenport at 160 who also finished fourth, and Mike Weidow at the heavyweight classification who also finished fourth.

Corvallis had three wrestlers who finished fourth -- Landon DellaSilva (130), Bo Davenport (160) and Mike Weidow (HWT). Fifth place finishers were Jaris Bierer (145) and Dennis Jessop (25). Danny Powers (112), finished sixth for the Blue Devils.

Hamilton had a strong showing with four wrestlers finishing in the top six in the state. Alex Martin lost a close match to Michael Hader of Columbia Falls at 140 and finished second. Brady Anderson was second at 189. Tanner Weigle was fourth at 171.

Glasgow won the Class B/C team trophy with 211 points. Florence finished in the middle of the pack with 39 points. Corbin Newbary took fourth at 98 pounds. Logan Person finished fifth at 189.

A family first

The individual championship won by Taylor Nagel was a first for the Nagel family. Coach Jeff Nagel has been coaching for 15 years in Corvallis. During this time he has coached 89 individual state placers and 15 individual state champions. His teams have won two state championships.

Even with all of the above mentioned success, Nagel has never had one of his own family win at the state level. Devin and Brady each competed at the state level. Devin was a three time state placer and Brady placed four times at state, finishing second his senior year. Both are currently wrestling for Mary College. Riley is Jeff and Lisa's youngest son. He is a seventh grader and won his first state title in Little Guy Wrestling last year.

Ten teams began their quest for a title and a chance to move to the next level of tournament play last week in Philipsburg at the District 13/14C tournament. Now, four remain. Charlo, Drummond, Noxon and Victor will advance to the Western C Girls Divisional next week at the Maroon Center in Butte.

Victor opened their tournament play and closed against the Noxon Red Devils. The Lady Pirates played a tough zone defense and held the Red Devils to only 29 points but couldn't get their own offense going, scoring 27 points and losing by two.

They next took on Two Eagle River School in loser out action. A 20 point second quarter was the difference at the Lady Pirates cruised to a 61-39 victory. Katie Jolley finished with 18 points and Shannon Reinhardt dropped in 14.

Next up for the Lady Pirates were the home-standing Prospectors of Philipsburg. Again playing a tough zone, Victor won easily, 33-12. Jolley and Kat Coorough led the scoring for the Lady Pirates.

"We were at the lowest point of the year, Wednesday night," said coach Brett Morehouse of the Noxon game. "And Thursday, against Two Eagle, Kat and Shannon broke loose. The next night Katie McCormack stepped up, then Shandel stepped up this morning. Katie Jolley has been playing strong all tournament."

He went on to say Victor's game against Hot Springs on Saturday morning was a lot of fun for the team. Victor broke loose in the fourth quarter to seal the 34-26 win and assure them a trip to Butte. Victor lost to Hot Springs just last week so it was sweet revenge for the Lady Pirates.

But, playing two games in one day is difficult, even though both Noxon and Victor had done so. Morehouse said his team rested and took in plenty of fluids but they lacked the intensity of the earlier game. Although the two teams played evenly to begin with, Noxon edged away and was never really threatened.

"I guess I 'out-chessed' myself," said Morehouse. "I didn't like our zone and thought we could do it individually."

The Red Devils defeated Victor for the second time, 31-19. Jolley led the scoring for Victor with 11 points.

Victor will open the Western C Divisional Tournament against Twin Bridges who are undefeated this year.

It's a coaches dilemma, how to get your team to play four complete quarters of a basketball game. Last week, the Stevensville Yellowjackets came back from 17 points down to defeat Hamilton. It was deja vu all over again against the Corvallis Blue Devils on Thursday. Stevi defeated Corvallis, 73-48.

The Blue Devils came out strong and, coupled with foul trouble, the Yellowjackets trailed by as many as 17 points before catching fire in the second quarter. Using a pressure defense, the 'Jackets capitalized on turnovers and tied the game at 25 all when Ryan Grove sank a short jumper to take the lead. A trey by Logan Creech gave the lead to the 'Jackets with seconds remaining in the first half.

"After we figured out we were getting beat down the floor, and got into our press, we did ok," said Chambers.

Stevensville 73, Corvallis 48

Corvallis - Shea Gingerich 7, Levi Clarke 3, Garrett Morris 6, Dalton Sybrant 7, Matt Smith 6, Tyler Tintzman 1, Erik Spencer 3, Geoff Fehr 2, Pat Monahan 2, Jordan Waldo 6, Nick Stoker 5.
Stevensville ­ Bridger Chambers 19, Ryan Grove 14, Nick Dahlquist 7, Boone Chambers 4, Drew Zeiler 3, Ethan Pateman 11, Cody Rosin 3, Richie Brushia 3, Logan Creech 5, Keith Mullan 4.

This was the last weekend of the regular season for Class B schools and, as always, the Darby/Florence match up was the game of the week. In addition to the rivalry, it was also Senior Night at Florence.

Florence came out strong against a very young Darby team and controlled the tempo of the game from the beginning. Led by six seniors, the Falcons defeated Darby, 58-28.

Darby - Kyle Rider 3, Jake Lindquist 5, Dillon Oliver 13, Mike Stanford 4, R.J. Hill 1, Jeremy True ax 2.
Florence - Dustin Lind 2, Joe Redfern 2, Kiel Hansen 10, Jordan Dean 14, Kris Person 17, Reid Baerlocher 9, Deric Stephens 2, Trevor Stoos 2.

Florence lost to Valley Christian, 60-52, on Saturday night. The Falcons were led by Jordan Dean's 19 points. Hansen added 12.

Corvallis lost to Anaconda, 60-55. The second place Copperheads came out strong and held off a late surge by Corvallis to take the Southwestern A win. Corvallis was led by Levi Clarke's 17 points.

Hamilton fell to the No. 1 ranked Dillon Beavers on Saturday, 47-50. It was Schallenberger again who led the Broncs in scoring, dropping in 11 points.

Hamilton defeated Darby on Thursday, 78-46. Jason Schallenberger paced the Broncs with 23 points. Oliver led Darby with 20 points.

Girls basketball games between Darby and Florence are always tough and scrappy. That was the case on Friday as well. Darby came out strong and led throughout much of the first half. Florence cam back to take a 23-20 lead at the end of the first half. The Lady Falcons played tough defense through the second half and took a 49-30 win.

The Lady Falcons came out tough in the third quarter while Darby was hampered when post player Missy DeWalt re-injured her ankle and had to be re-taped. DeWalt did return but fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.

"I thought our girls played hard," said Caroline Ehmann, coach of the Lady Tigers. "I was really pleased with our point guard's play."

Coach Bryan Neuman of Florence knows to expect a tough game from Darby. "They come ready to play and you canąt overlook them."

Florence 49, Darby 30

Darby - Kasey Blue 2, Kayla Schallenberger 5, Missy DeWalt 7, Gianna Stone 8, Linsey Trowbridge 4, Maria Cress 4.
Florence - Rae Baerlocher 16, Brooke Zeiler 18, Amber Wahl 3, Jordan Rick 10, Cortney Reynolds 2.

Florence topped Valley Christian, 60-50, in their final regular season game. It was Zeiler and Baerlocher again who paced the Lady Falcons, with 19 and 16 points respectively. Wahl added 12 and Reynolds 10.

Darby lost to Hamilton, 55-20, on Thursday night.

Stevensville picked up their first win of the season with a 51-47 victory over rival Corvallis. Corvallis led by two at the end of the first quarter and then held Stevensville to only four points in the second quarter. But the halftime was good to the Lady 'Jackets for a change and they came out strong, outscoring the Blue Devils by nine points. The momentum continued for Stevi as they held off the 'Devils for the win.

Ami Fey led the way for Stevensville with 17 points. Sherry Walters added 12 and Ali Jones 10. Corvallis was led by Sunni Bleibtrey and Megan Auch's 10 points.

Tournament Preview

The Florence Falcons will take on Deer Lodge on Thursday, February 15, in the opening game of the District 7B Tournament. The tournament will be held at Dale Berry Court at Hamilton High School.

Deer Lodge is the number five seed while Florence is the number four. Darby will take on Valley Christian, the number three seed at 8 p.m on Thursday. Regular season conference winner, Seeley Swan and second place Loyola both have byes.

"The thing about a six team tournament is sometimes the lower seeds get byes at the right time," said Florence coach Sam Baerlocher. "With a conference as tough as this one is, there's probably going to be a good team staying home."

Darby will have a full team ready to play at tournament time according to first year coach Clyde Trueax.

"We've had games where we play a great first half but if one kid goes downhill, then there goes your game," he said. "We're such a young team, it's hard for them to maintain that level. We're not only young, but also inexperienced."

Darby will have their second leading scorer, John Pyles back in the line up.

The Lady Falcons will have a first-round bye by virtue of their second place finish in the regular season. Darby will take on Seeley-Swan in a match of the four and five seeds. Loyola won the conference title.